Shadow of the Dragon King
by Lunatique
Summary: In the months before Zuko's exile, he and Azula are locked in a battle of wills for the soul of a nation. Lives are caught in the crossfire, and the Fire Nation will be changed forever. An in-depth look behind Zuko's exile, sequel to "The Alternative."
1. Chapter 1: A Royal Visit

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

- An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic by Lunatique

* * *

**Part 1: Dragon Dreams**

**Chapter 1: A Royal Visit**

* * *

Thus freedom is not just the matter of saying "Yes" or "No" to a specific decision; it is the power to mold and create ourselves.  
- Rollo May, _Freedom_

* * *

On the day that began the ruin of a Prince, his ship swept in upon the waves to the coast of Azhoran Island. Its sails swelled on a spring wind and shoals of vivid fish swirled in the water as though in celebration.

A boy in his early teens, just coming into his growth, leaned over the railing as if anxious to reach the thick vegetation along the coast before the rest of the ship. His face had begun to develop the angles and definitions of the man he would grow to be, but at this moment his exuberance was very much that of a child.

"Look!" His voice cracked, his tight ponytail flying in the wind, as he pointed at grey stone walls rising out of the dark green forest that lined the coast of this easternmost island of the Fire Nation Archipelago. "Is that Lord Zhen's castle?"

"One of his outlying fortifications, your Highness." A man, wearing his early middle age with the same grace as his formal robes, pulled the adolescent back by his shoulders and prevented a royal splash into the sea below. "We will travel inland with Lord Zhen to speak with him and see his subjects."

"You mean, to be seen by them." The boy turned to lean back against the railing, hooking his elbows around the top bars. "I'm a big show wherever I go. I think I'll declare myself a traveling circus so I can charge attendance, Master Lu." He looked up at Lu with an open smile in his face. "You could you draw up the decree for me."

"Prince Zuko, I am fairly certain I did not become a Master of Laws and Decrees to declare the Firelord's son a circus." Master Lu sniffed, fingering his thin mustache. "Or to have my head presented on a platter to His Majesty, for that matter."

Zuko chuckled, his eyes and whole face crinkling in mirth. He then detached himself from the railing to stand before Lu, a little more serious now. "I just wish I could... talk to people." His eyes were downcast. "I want to hear more than 'You honor us with your presence, Prince Zuko,' or 'May your royal father's reign be peaceful and prosperous.' Isn't that why Father sent me to travel the nation, to find out how the people are doing?"

Master Lu opened his mouth as if to say something, then stopped himself. He put a hand on the boy's shoulder, and his voice was gentle when he spoke "You do important work here by letting the people know that their prince is with them, and available to them. It raises morale to see their future Firelord."

"I suppose so." Zuko nodded, his eyes lighting up again, if not wholeheartedly.

"Prince Zuko," came a voice lowered by habit and not necessity. "Master Lu." The young man had come up beside them without a creak on the wooden deck. He bowed to the prince and his teacher, the hair that had been left out of his topknot falling like curtains on either side of a watchful face. "We are ready to dock."

"Thank you, Shun." Master Lu turned to Zuko. "We will disembark soon, your Highness. This way."

"One traveling circus, coming up," muttered Zuko as he followed his Master to the prow of the ship. The gullbatrosses by the shore circled and cried out as if in greeting, the approaching shouts of the crowd drowning them out as the ship sailed into the docks.

* * *

"All hail Prince Zuko, first son and heir apparent to the Firelord, Lord of Taga, Haishan, and Kelu, Protector of Meiran and Prince of the Realm!"

Excited cries greeted the announcement as Zuko stepped from the gangplank and onto the pier. The herald bowed low to him, as did the attendants on either side of his path. Hands clasped behind his back, Zuko walked among people who bowed in his path like grass before wind.

At the end of the double line of attendants waited a trim man in his fifties, his thinning hair so neat as to look sculpted. He bowed to Zuko in precise movements.

"Welcome to Azhoran, your Highness."

"Thank you, Lord Zhen." Zuko acknowledged him with a shallower bow. "My royal father bade me give you his regards."

"We are most honored." Zhen rose from his bow to sweep a hand toward the road away from the harbor, where a rhino-drawn curtained carriage awaited. "We can only hope the arrangements will please."

"I am certain they will, thank you." Zuko walked past Zhen to the carriage, his attendants in tow. Once he had Lord Zhen behind him he grimaced and rolled his eyes, earning a shake of the head from Master Lu.

Zuko swung himself up to the carriage, Lord Zhen following behind. Master Lu came up side by side with a slender young man who had unusual reddish hair swept up in a ponytail.

"Prince Zuko, this is my nephew and captain of my guard, Kang." At Zhen's words Kang bowed, palm and fist together in the flame position. Zuko nodded, and Master Lu and Captain Kang both bowed again before climbing into the carriage next to their respective lieges.

At a word from the driver the rhino started off with rolling steps that had the carriage trundling forward. Their guards walked alongside, ahead, and behind while the crowd of merchants, journeymen, farmers, and children cheered on either side of the road. Zuko watched them through the curtains, sometimes waving at the more boisterous calls.

Paying no attention to Lu and Zhen's polite conversation about the people's morale and crop yields, Zuko eyed the road and the people outside, some trying to get closer to the carriage only to be pushed back by guards. The air had a sharp, dry taste as though it would burst into flame with a single spark, and despite the festivity the crowd seemed listless from the heat.

"It's quite dusty," Zuko said without complaint. The small procession kicked up clouds of dust and sand, rendering the view outside fuzzy.

"I do apologize, your Highness." Zhen made a small bow in his seat. "We have had a drought here for some months-"

"-which would explain the crop yields-" said Master Lu,

"-but the situation is fully under control." Lord Zhen looked at the Master of Laws and Decrees. "Please inform your royal father that there will be no problem with this year's tax collection."

Zuko nodded without much interest, his eyes glazing over as though with the veil of dust outside. "I'm sure it'll be fine," he mumbled, something Master Lu seemed less than happy about.

Just then the rhino drawing their carriage bucked and reared, prompting a stifled curse from the driver. The whole carriage rocked before it settled; Master Lu slipped almost off his seat while Captain Kang caught Lord Zhen. Zuko caught himself with a hand against the carriage frame and sat up, alert eyes searching his surroundings.

"What is the disturbance?" Kang started from his seat. Outside, the guards were moving in to ring the carriage, weapons out and looking for any sign of attack.

"Prince Zuko! Son of the Firelord, hear us!" called a man's voice from the path ahead of the carriage. "Do not ignore us in our hour of need!"

An Azhoran guard hurried up to Captain Kang's side. Zuko half-closed his eyes, concentrating on the low voice. "Sir, there's a peasant on the road, blocking the way."

"Seize him, and move on." Kang's red ponytail flew as he turned his head to the guard. "This could be a distraction, and I want him questioned."

At a sign from the guard, there was the sound of a scuffle and the unseen peasant's voice changed to a snarl. "Get those filthy hands-" dirt scraped and flesh struck flesh. "Prince Zuko!" The man's words were strangled with exertion, "Don't let them blind you! I'm begging you!"

Zuko moved before anyone could stop him. He swung out of the carriage, foot on its large wheel, and jumped to the ground to dart under the arm of a guard who was watching the action at the front of the carriage. The prince ran front past the guards and the rhino until he was abreast with the beast's horned head in full view of shocked eyes.

In front of the rhino a big, grey-haired man in a worn tunic and working pants struggled with two guards who held him on either side. His eyes widened, as did everyone else's, at the sight of Zuko. The guards hesitated, and the peasant used the pause to fling his captors off and prostrate himself at Zuko's feet.

"Look at me." Zuko demanded, his hand hovering near the knife tucked into his silk sash. He raised a hand to stop the guards who would seize the man again. "Who are you, and why do you intrude on us?"

"My name is Sanwai, Highness." The man raised his head a fraction. "A farmer from the village of Tamalan. I'm sorry, but I saw no other way."

"Prince Zuko." Shun came like a shadow to Zuko's side. "You are too exposed here." He stood between Zuko and the crowd, dark eyes darting left and right as guards formed a defensive perimeter around them.

"Take him away." Captain Kang strode forward through the guards, amber eyes flashing. "The insolent peasant will learn a lesson he'll not soon forget." He flanked Zuko's other side, shielding him. "My Prince, please return to the carriage. This may be a plot to harm you."

"Come to the village and see for yourself!" Sanwai shouted as he was seized and dragged away. "You're our only hope, Prince Zuko!"

Zuko watched him for a few moments as the crowd murmured among themselves. He nodded when Kang called to him again, his thoughts elsewhere. "All right." He turned back, Shun following a few paces behind.

Before he boarded the carriage again, Zuko looked back at the dusty road and the troubled faces he saw there. He stepped up with a small frown, with Kang choosing to ride a rhino alongside the carriage to keep an eye on the situation. The procession started off toward Lord Zhen's castle again as everyone tried to rekindle the festive spirit. It never quite took, like flames put to a wet log.

* * *

Princess Azula's sitting room was quiet. The evening dark flowed over the stone floors and into corners and shadows behind expensive ceramics and painted hangings. The flames in sconces along the papered walls and two candles before the Princess's desk were the only steady points of light.

The Princess herself sat upright behind the desk, reading. Two locks of hair that had been allowed to escape the topknot on her head framed a face just on the cusp of adolescence. Yet the hard intelligence in her eyes seemed to belong to a much older woman, as did the darkly amused set of her mouth.

"It has been a month since Prince Zuko's departure." The voice came from the left of Azula, where, in the shadow, sat a woman who had long sunk into old age as she had into her silken cushions. The ornaments hanging from her done-up hair cast shadows on the wall behind her, alternately horned creature and festooned pagoda.

"A month," agreed an identical woman in the corner to Azula's right. "The people see him, and know him as the Firelord's firstborn and heir apparent."

Azula's eyes never wavered from her book; the candlelight did not waver in golden eyes. She turned a page, the rasp of paper on paper loud in the quiet.

"Yet the Princess is content to stay in the Fire Palace, unseen and silent." The crone on the left sighed.

"None know her, except a name and a title," her twin replied.

"Surely she can do more," they said together, "and must."

" 'He who exposes himself to adulation exposes himself to peril,' " Azula read, or perhaps recited from prodigious memory, without lifting her eyes. She turned the last page and closed the book, then stood in one motion. "What my brother does is his business. I trust Generals Shu and Chin are coming to see me tomorrow, as arranged?"

"Yes, Princess." The crones chorused, and bowed in unison from where they sat.

"Good." Azula stepped out from behind her desk and stretched like a cat. "I am going to my bath."

"Then to dine with your royal father?"

"And my royal uncle." She grimaced, then waved jauntily to her aged attendants. "Good night, Li, Lo." Azula left the room, her steps light on the carpeted floor. Left on their own, the crones Li and Lo lowered their voices in conversation.

"What can she be thinking?"

"I know not, sister. Her thoughts are her own."

"She stays at the Firelord's side while her brother is far away-"

"-and unable to speak to their father. She makes connections-"

"-and alliances. I begin to see the shape of the thing."

"We will know more," they said together, "in the fullness of time."

The darkness deepened as they rose as one and went from the room. Outside the night poured like water into the bowl of the crater where the Fire Palace sat. The lights twinkled in the night, awaiting the dawn and the renewal of fire over the world.

* * *

_Next: An old salt has no patience for dreams and legends._


	2. Interlude: The Firebrand

Note: I've chosen to spell Lieutenant Jee's name "Ji" rather than "Jee." It's still the same guy who gives Zuko a much-needed telling-off, at least in my head.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Interlude: The Firebrand**

* * *

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.  
- Elie Wiesel

* * *

Steel battleships loomed over the colonized Fire Nation harbor of Shang Ru. In their shadow, black and long in the sunset, a man boarded his carriage with a swagger that added inches to his height and made the firebender officer's double-breasted armor seem even more impressive.

On the deck of the _Firebrand, _three members of her crew watched their First Officer leave, not bothering to hide their distaste.

"There he goes." Kaoren from engineering spat into the sea. "Again."

"Our non-existent First Mate," agreed the assistant navigator. "Riding off to his battles at the capital."

"I'm just glad to see the back o' him, tell you the truth." Zanzen, a firebender marine, leaned over the railing watching the carriage go. "Why don't he stay away for good, that's my question. That way we get our _real_ first officer, Lieutenant J-"

"Is something the matter here?" A jagged baritone cut into the conversation. The men spun around to meet a face weathered by years at sea. He was ageless in the way of sailors pickled in sea-salt, his hair in its mussed topknot and his side-whiskers going grey, no compromise in the angles of his face and the set of his shoulders.

"Lieutenant Ji, sir!" The three men stood to attention from their slumped positions over the railing, their shoulders pulling back and chins snapping up in the discipline the man's presence demanded.

"Did I hear you disrespect a superior officer, Specialist Wan?" Lieutenant Ji Huo, quartermaster of the _Firebrand,_ leaned in to fix the assistant navigator with a gaze.

"N-no sir, I-" the man stammered, unable to look Ji in the eye.

"Good," said Lieutenant Ji, drawing back. "Don't let that happen. Ever."

He was about to turn away, prompting a sigh of relief from the crewmen, when another voice spoke: "He didn't say nothin' wrong, though, did he?"

Ji turned to look at Zanzen who had spoken, while Kaoren and Wan looked about ready to strangle the young marine.

"What did you say, Corporal?" Ji narrowed his eyes and took a step towards Zanzen; the younger man tensed, but did not back down.

"I'm saying, sir, it's you who've been our first officer these past years while Lieutenant Zhao was in name only. It's a shame how they treat you is what I'm-"

"Enough." Ji pointed at the marine. "A week of scrubbing the deck should give you time to relearn the meaning of respect for the chain of command." Zanzen set his teeth, and said nothing.

Ji turned to the other two crewmen. "If you have nothing better to do with your time than idle talk, I can think of plenty of tasks to occupy you." He narrowed his eyes. "Will that be necessary?"

The two men lowered their eyes and managed a muttered "No, sir" each.

"Dismissed." Ji watched the men go, then flicked a glance over his shoulder at the men who had been listening in. They dispersed without a word.

* * *

It was almost fully dark. The yellow lights of Shang Ru blinked to life, and in that illumination Ji could just see Lieutenant Zhao's carriage disappear down the main road. It was a short sail across the strait into the homeland proper, where the food burned on the tongue and the women were generous. No Earthbender resistance waiting around every corner, no kids in uniform crying and cradling hands that had been crushed beyond recognition. He felt the distant itch to be there, to be _home, _so close yet out of reach.

He told himself he didn't care that Zhao, like many others, would be promoted ahead of him. The smooth-tongued nobleman would not be the first nor the last to rise quickly in the ranks despite, or maybe because of, spending more time at the Fire Palace than on a battlefield. It was the way of the world; promising young men like Zanzen would do well to understand that and stop wasting their time bashing their heads against walls that would not break.

The thought of walls brought back memories of Ba Sing Se and the Dragon of the West. They said the man, born a prince, ate the food his soldiers ate and slept in the tent his soldiers used. Blood, position, and land had no place in the Dragon's army, only ability. And so men lived and died for him, breaking themselves in waves against those implacable walls. Ji remembered, as though the memories belonged to another man, the excitement surrounding that most brilliant of generals, the whispers of old legend and the possibility of change.

But the Dragon never ascended; his line ended with a dead son, and the dragons themselves were gone. Dragon King, he snorted at the thought. No more than a feeble yearning for what might have been. If they ever existed, they weren't coming back. It certainly wasn't something a practical man should spend his time thinking about.

He looked out at the starlit sea, and at the embers of sunset in the direction of home. He turned and went belowdecks with the sound of the surf in his ears, the constant companion of half a lifetime spent at sea.

* * *

_Next: Zuko flies off the handle and Azula burns stuff up. A normal day in the Fire Nation, in other words._


	3. Chapter 2: A Feast of Words

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 2: A Feast of Words**

* * *

Repression will provoke rebellion.  
- Hugh Williamson

* * *

It was half a day's travel to Lord Zhen's castle, to the foothills of the volcano that rose out of the wreath of fields and green woodland. Once they were out of the harbor town Zuko tired of the carriage and insisted on a mongoose dragon he could ride on his own. His wingcat was also let out of her cage and roamed free for a while, flitting from rhino head to mongoose dragon neck until an irritable beast tossed her off. She sailed through the air with a forlorn mew until she righted herself and flew on without a background glance. The flick of a white-tipped tail and the offended dignity in the angle of her head told anyone who cared to look that she hadn't under any circumstances contemplated taking a nap on one of these beasts of burden, thank you very much.

"Hey, Shao Mei." Zuko laughed as his cat came to perch on his shoulders, but the laugh turned into a yelp of pain. A spotted dogzelle had crept out of the bush at the side of the road and the wingcat started hissing, winding herself about Zuko's neck and head while her claws dug for a foothold.

"No claws. No claws!" Zuko reached up to disengage the feline, who just yowled and dug in harder. "Ow!"

A low whistle and a whish of a tree branch chased the curious dogzelle away, and Shao Mei was lifted off the prince by the scruff of her neck. Zuko turned to see his wingcat quiet as a newborn kitten in Shun's grasp. The round-eyed look on her face suggested she couldn't possibly be the hissing, clawing creature Zuko was looking for, why would he ask?

"Thank you, Shun. You really are a bodyguard for all occasions." Zuko felt the shoulders of his silk jacket, grimacing.

Shun bowed in response. He tossed the broken branch away and dumped Shao Mei on the mongoose dragon's rump, where she lay in a heap of ruffled pride before shaking herself and flying off for new explorations.

Zuko watched her go with a grin on his face, then eyed the silent figure striding next to him. "So uh..." he cleared his throat. "You sure you don't want a ride of your own? I'd get tired, keeping pace with the riding beasts."

"I prefer to keep my feet on the ground, my Prince." Shun's eyes flicked from left to right, always on the lookout for danger. "It keeps me alert."

"Hey, kind of like an earthbender!" Zuko peered over the flank of his ride at the ground below. "At least you're not barefoot like some savage." He laughed nervously.

"No sir," Shun's expression never changed.

After a few moments of silence Zuko spoke again, eyeing the curved blade at Shun's side. "Is that a dao blade? They use them in the Colonies where you came from, right?"

"That is correct, your Highness." Shun cast a sideways glance down at the blade, then up at Zuko. "If you will excuse me." He bowed and moved off to the side of the road to investigate a sound or movement.

"Nice talking to you." Zuko looked around at the procession. The afternoon sun beat down on the party, and they were all limp as vegetables left out in the heat. Lord Zhen and Master Lu had stuck to the carriage even though the ride was starting to get bumpy as the road went up into the foothills. Snatches of conversation escaped the propped-open windows of the carriage. Captain Kang nodded to Zuko from his seat on a rhino, looking crisp as ever. Shao Mei lay draped between the horns of a plodding rhino, the twitch of a wing or paw testimony to some cat-dream or other.

They passed brush and undergrowth on the sides of the road, sometimes rice paddies and orchards with their occupants hard at work in this time of late spring growth. The procession traveled along streams and irrigation ditches that flowed sparkling from the volcanic hills and the looming mountain far away.

The prince looked around to the back of the procession, where the luggage followed the main procession—including unexpectedly acquired human luggage. He started maneuvering his lizard to fall behind, but found himself hemmed in by guards both mounted and on foot. When he tried to slow down, a guard on a rhino came up behind and herded him on. When he tried to sidle out of the procession, footsoldiers were in the way. When he went into the bushes saying nature called, the guards insisted on taking his lizard's reins from him and waiting for him to return.

At last Zuko gave up and propped his elbow on the saddle horn, cupping his chin in his hand. A guard took up the reins Zuko dropped, leading his beast on its way. Shun followed behind, his eyes thoughtful whenever they fell on the prince.

* * *

The castle, a compound of buildings that arose atop a hill ringed by stone walls, was ablaze with light as dusk fell in the shadow of the volcano. The castle didn't have the majesty of the capital, nor the flair of color and form that the larger cities boasted, but there was a sort of contentment in its clean and simple lines.

The servants and residents came out to greet them with lamps and torches, and the whole party was ushered in with that particular mix of excitement and courtesy that hovered around great occasions. They walked through the open gateway in the stone wall and between rows of paper lanterns that had been lit on their path through the outer yard. Zuko smiled at the riot of colors and the happy people, and his steps were lighter here at the end of his journey.

"So we'll be here a few days," Zuko, scrubbed and washed of the dirt of travel and alone in his quarters, told Shao Mei. "Feast tonight, oxboar hunt tomorrow, more parties, and holding court with Lord Zhen day after tomorrow. Exciting stuff, huh?"

The wingcat, curled on a cushion behind her porcelain water bowl, opened one eye to look at him. She sneezed and went to work licking her paw.

"Yeah, maybe not." Zuko plopped down next to her and scratched her on the shoulders between her black-feathered wings, setting off an approving purr as she performed complicated contortions to direct his fingers under her chin, then to her white-tufted chest and black head.

"I don't understand. Why won't they let me talk to that man?" Zuko toweled his shoulder-length hair one handed, his motions rough with frustration. Shao Mei meowed unhappily when that roughness transferred to the hand stroking her, and he rested it on her back instead.

"The man—Sanwai—he wanted to talk to _me._" Zuko stood and started pacing the room, working himself up as he talked. Shao Mai followed his progress with yellow eyes in between grooming her wings. "They have no right to keep me from him, like I'm some kind of child. I mean," he stopped in his tracks. "What would Father think? That I let myself be pushed around by my inferiors!"

He shook his head and draped the damp towel around his bare shoulders like a robe, then struck a pose with his shoulders back, legs apart and arms crossed. "This is unacceptable, Lord Zhen. I will speak with this citizen of the Fire Nation directly!" He pointed a finger at the door.

"Prince Zuko," a quiet voice called from behind it, startling him, "your attendants are here."

"All right, send them i—wait." Zuko paused, his brows knitting in thought. "Could you come in first, Shun? It's a matter of- uh, security!"

The door opened, and Shun bowed on entrance. "Never mind that." Zuko waved a hand. "Close the door."

Shun did as he was told, looking, however faintly, perplexed for perhaps the first time in the six months Zuko had known him. "Your Highness?"

"So I was wondering..." Zuko smoothed down his disheveled hair, then grinned with too many teeth. "Could you do something for me?"

* * *

Zuko picked at his liver sausages with a side of spring melons, listening with half an ear to the conversations around him. As the guest of honor he had been given the seat at the middle of the head table, Lord Zhen to his left and Master Lu to his right, Kang and his friends chatting among themselves across the table. Zuko tried to listen to the young men's conversation, but found it hard with Zhen and Master Lu insisting on talking to each other over or across him.

"All I am saying, my lord," Master Lu said primly, "is that the most privileged of our Nation have a duty to play their role in this time of need." He brought a piece of sausage and melon to his mouth and savored the taste, nodding in approval.

"Quite right, Master Lu," said Lord Zhen, slicing the sausage on his plate into still smaller pieces. "I would argue, however, that we are already fulfilling our obligations as loyal servants of the Firelord."

"Yet taxation is at the basis of-"

"Is it not taxation that we raise and fund troops from our own ancestral lands and send them to the Firelord?" There was now some heat in Zhen's words. "That we keep the internal peace while war is conducted abroad?"

"The smallfolk grow discontent." Lu waved away his half-finished sausages when the servers brought out roasted piggoat with fried greens. "They resent their burden, and believe the nobility should shoulder more of it."

"It is a fact of life, dear sir, that everyone would like someone else to carry more." Zhen shredded the meat apart into smaller slices with his chopsticks, then the vegetables as well. "Yet taking away the ancient privileges of the ruling class would only cause confusion and strife."

"So the landed nobility should continue to be exempt from taxes, is what I take to be your position?" Lu's voice took on a frosty edge.

"I do not believe the Firelord would force the issue, Master Lu." Zhen seemed amused now. He picked out a a tiny piece of the piggoat he had cut up and brought them to his mouth, chewing with precise motions while Zuko looked on with a kind of weary fascination. "Not in the middle of a war, when he requires the support of the nobility to the utmost."

"Is that a threat?" Zuko slapped his chopsticks down and turned on Lord Zhen. "You'd just turn on my royal father in the midst of war?"

"Prince Zuko, no." Master Lu's eyes widened as the room grew silent. "What are you-"

"You talk treason if you think to undermine the Firelord when he is at war—when the nation is at war." Zuko caught sight of Zhen shredding his food into still tinier bits, the lord's face expressionless and eyes looking straight ahead. "And stop that with your food!" Zuko started out of his seat.

Thin hands strong as pincers grabbed Zuko's shoulders from behind, and he turned to meet his teacher's set face. "Not another word from you, Prince Zuko." Lu turned to Lord Zhen, who was still—to Zuko's rage—shredding his food almost into powder. "Forgive the Prince's exuberance, my lord. He is very loyal to his lord father." Then he hissed to Zuko: "Apologize!"

"I won't!" Zuko whispered back, shaking Master Lu off. "He disrespected the Firelord-"

"Don't you see you are embarrassing him with this behavior?" Lu shot back, giving Zuko pause.

At that moment Lord Zhen clapped sharply twice. "Music," he called, "for our honored guest. If it please your Highness?" Zhen turned without expression to Zuko, all but daring him to take the matter further.

Zuko didn't. He nodded, still feeling the heat of anger, and said: "Very well."

At a sign from Lord Zhen musicians entered the room, with drums, reed-flutes, shell rattlers, and—to Zuko's horror—a tsungi horn. They bowed and began on Lord Zhen's signal, filling the air with a flowing, mournful tune. Zuko decided the music was good, but he had been subjected to so much of it on his tour through the Nation that he found it hard to enjoy. Uncle would have loved it, he thought, smiling at the thought of the funny old man. He was starting to miss home.

It was also difficult to concentrate on the performance with Kang and his friends talking in low voices across the table. Kang's friend was needling him about some animal he had caught but was unable to tame.

"What are you going to do about that thing?" the young man whispered. "Have another go?" He snickered.

"Lucky if he doesn't break his neck," said a young man on Kang's other side. "That thing is strong—and slippery."

"You can't keep it in the grain shed forever," said the first friend. "It's getting bigger and madder all the time."

"I should just cook the damn thing, shed and all." Kang tossed back a cup of rice wine. "At least then it'll be meat, and some use."

"Think it'll taste like eel, or hound?" asked his friend.

"My bet's on giant." The other one chortled, and poured the beleaguered Kang more wine.

The music ended on a trilling note to the applause of the guests. A giant eel hound, thought Zuko as he clapped. He'd heard about the animal, said to be the fastest beast on earth and water, but also stubborn and not easily taken to rein. He would love a ride, but that wasn't happening from the sound of it. For a moment he fantasized about being the one to tame the beast and riding off on it, beyond the reach of caretakers and guards.

The entertainment had moved on to dance when Zuko caught sight of Shun leaning against the wall near an exit. Zuko slipped away from the head table, tearing his eyes away from the dancers' sinuous movements. Shun, seeing him approach, went out to the hallway where Zuko caught up with him.

"Did you find out?" Zuko asked once Shun had checked the deserted stretch of hallway.

"My Prince." Shun hesitated. "I am not certain about-"

"Did you find him or not?" Zuko demanded.

"I did," Shun admitted as though the words were dragged out of him.

"Where is he being held?"

"A holding cell on the second floor of the guardhouse, near the south gate." Shun paused a moment. "He is your host's prisoner, Prince Zuko. This is unwise."

"He's my father's subject." The argument with Zhen still rankled, and Zuko was more determined than ever to go through with this.

"My Prince-"

"You did well, Shun." Zuko smiled up at the guard, the fatigue of the day heavy in his limbs all at once. "I won't forget this."

Shun seemed about to speak again, then stopped himself and bowed instead.

"Come on, we're going to miss the performance." Zuko led the way back to the banquet hall. Shun followed at a distance, his face unreadable in the torchlight.

* * *

It was late by the time the feast was done and the men retired. The adults were drunk off their feet, and even Lord Zhen and Master Lu seemed to have drowned their differences in drink, if the way they babbled happy nonsense to each other at the top of their lungs was any indication. Kang supported Lord Zhen, practically carrying him, while Zuko helped a servant take Master Lu, the alcohol so strong on his teacher's breath Zuko felt drunk just being next to him.

"Yer... you are, a very_ good _boy, Prince Zuko, dun... do-on't let anyone tell you oth'rwise," Master Lu slurred as he stumbled down the hallway. "Heart in the righ' place, thas what you arrrr."

"Yes sir." Zuko exchanged a grin with the servant over Master Lu's flopping head. He should try to get the Master of Laws and Decrees drunk more often; the entertainment potential was endless.

He gave Master Lu over to the servant's care at the door, then was escorted by a guard to his own room. He staggered a few times on the way as if from drink, of which he had no more than a sip or two but knew he reeked of thanks to Master Lu. Once at his room, Zuko dropped into bed as though he couldn't be bothered to change and wash. He took slow breaths as though he slept, waiting for the door to close and the guard to settle outside the door. After a few minutes, he sprang to his feet.

He shushed Shao Mei when she looked up, her eyes giving off a glow in the blackness. He shed his court finery and put on plainer fare, as dark in color as he could find; dark brown pants, grey shirt, black vest with a broad stripe of rust-red running down either side and a belt sash to match. He tucked his knife through the sash, and was ready.

"Be back soon, Mei," he whispered to the cat when she glided over, head cocked in puzzlement at her human's behavior. He stroked her head, then went to the window and opened it a crack. He watched the patrolling guard for for an opening, and swung himself out the window while the man's back was turned. His fingers and toes found purchase in the cracks and seams of the stone as he climbed down, Shao Mei looking out over the windowsill but not following. By the time the guard was looking his way again, Zuko had jumped the last three feet and taken refuge behind a tree.

Once he was sure he hadn't been seen, Zuko peered out around the tree, its bark rough against his skin, waiting for another gap in the patrol. It brought back memories of exploring the Fire Palace while giving guards and attendants the slip—sometimes with Azula and whichever of Ty Lee and Mai were at court at the time, and alone with Mai when they could manage it.

He snapped back to the present when the guard moved on, and made his way across the garden toward the stone fortification and the guardhouse in the distance. The moon, his enemy now, slipped behind a cloud, and friendly darkness fell over him. There and back, in and out, he told himself; he'd be back in bed before anyone found out. It was just a little adventure, an exploration into what was denied him.

* * *

"Why do we care what she talks about with some stuffy military guy, anyway?" Ty Lee grumbled as she crawled through the flowering bushes, the sunlight bright from above the stately garden tree. Her button nose scrunched in distaste at the dirt she was getting on her pink skirt and blouse.

"Shhh." Mai put a finger to her lips, her almost translucent face in striking contrast to her black hair as she peered out between the leaves. When Ty Lee wouldn't stop squirming, Mai sighed. "That stuffy military guy just happens to be Lord Zhao Man's son. Why else would she want to talk to some lieutenant alone?"

Ty Lee's lips rounded in an O before she muffled a giggle. "So it's like being spies!" Mai rolled her eyes as she strained to hear.

"General Shu seems to think very highly of you," came Azula's cultured voice. "He speaks glowingly of your abilities."

"I served under him for years, Princess. I am honored to be at court with him—and that you would deign to speak with me." Zhao's voice rumbled and rolled in notes of self-confidence. Their footsteps moved further away as the two exchanged pleasantries, prompting Mai to duck and follow through the bush, then dart behind a decorative rock. Ty Lee followed and hid behind a tree, the grin on her face in contrast to Mai's narrow-eyed concentration.

"Let's be frank with each other, Lieutenant." Azula stopped walking, and Zhao with her. Mai listened, eyes half closed, as the scuff of booted feet on the garden path indicated Azula had turned to face Zhao.

"My brother is a weak and ineffectual fool." Mai stiffened, then forced her breathing regular and still again. "It's a trap older sons fall into. He thinks slavish devotion to our father will secure him his _birthright._" The word was spoken like the worst kind of insult.

"He should become a military man like you, really, or our uncle." Azula resumed walking. "Zuko's a follower, not a leader." Mai dared to look out around the rock at Azula picking a flower from a shrub, sniffing at it. "And the Fire Nation needs a leader." Blue flame leaped up from Azula's palm, burning the red blossom to ashes in an instant.

"Yet not all military men are mindless followers, Princess." Zhao looked on, a knowing smile on his face. "Some of us have aspirations beyond that."

"Yes, I recognize the hunger in you." Azula shook ashes from her hand and turned to him. "It's the thirst of the younger son, knowing you are born to nothing and must fight for everything." Her smile was knife-sharp. "It's the knowledge that you will _have_ everything, because you are worthy of it unlike your entitled weakling of a brother."

"My lady." Zhao went to one knee before Azula.

"You would be wise to choose now, Lieutenant, instead of waiting to see which way the wind blows—the coward's way." Azula looked down her nose at Zhao, her delicate features imperious. Mai swallowed, her eyes widening a fraction. "You are not a coward, and you already know the outcome of this game. I promise you, the rewards will be great."

"I am your loyal servant," murmured Zhao.

"As loyal as you can be to anyone, anyway." Azula looked up sharply, and in an instant white-blue fire crackled from her fingertips to the shrub next to Mai's hiding place. The shrubbery burst into flame, showering Mai with sparks and burning leaves. Ty Lee covered her mouth as she watched from behind her tree. Mai did not move except to deepen her crouch, her lips compressing in a thin line when tiny flames burned holes in her sleeve.

"Princess?" Zhao was on his feet and on guard, but Azula smirked and turned away.

"I thought I heard a rat, but I guess not." She beckoned. "It's time we both prepared for the feast, Lieutenant. Come."

The moment they were out of sight Ty Lee ran to Mai and helped her up, slapping out the flames on her clothing. They left together in a crouching run before anyone could come investigate. The blackened remains of the flowering brush sent up a line of smoke behind them.

* * *

"But what are we going to do?" Ty Lee's voice squeaked as she put burn salve on Mai's bare arm, the burned patches an angry red against pale skin. They were back in Mai's quarters and had taken out their small stash of healing supplies, having no way to explain the burn to any healer. Besides, they were well versed in minor burns after years around Azula.

"Do about what?" Only a slight clenching of Mai's teeth gave evidence of her discomfort as the salve touched raw skin.

"You know, Azula and Zuko and-" Ty Lee shrugged as she dug the gauze out of the healing kit. "You know."

"So what? Azula wants the throne. In other news, fire is hot." Mai grimaced. "I should know."

"So we're not going to do- anything?" Ty Lee started dressing the burns, looking anxiously at her friend's face.

"Azula knew we were there," Mai's eyes narrowed while Ty Lee's grew even rounder in response. "It's a test. We _can't _do anything."

Ty Lee finished the bandaging in silence, then left to put the kit away. Mai let out a long breath, closing her eyes for a moment. When she reopened them a shutter had closed behind them, showing no hint of what went on within. Her face, just beginning the transition from a child's to that of a young woman, smoothed into uncaring ennui. She looked out the window as though watching and waiting, but her lips and her eyes kept her thoughts to herself.

* * *

_Next: Zuko speaks to Sanwai, and Shun remembers._


	4. Chapter 3: A Royal Departure 1 of 2

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 3: A Royal Departure**

* * *

And therein lies the problem . . . and of course, the opportunity. How does one come to the point in his or her life when he or she is not only ready, but eager and willing, however terrifying the prospect might be, to self-execute such a leap of faith without any guarantees that it will do any good?  
- Michael Gerber, _The E-Myth Revisited_

* * *

Night shift at the guardhouse was quiet. The guard sitting at his post—a rickety desk under a torch that cut a circle of light out of the darkness—yawned and stretched, until something caught his eye mid-yawn. His mouth snapped shut and he stood hurriedly, snatching up the glaive he had leaned against a stone wall.

"Who's there?"

The guard's eyes widened at the sight of the boy who stepped out of the shadows and into the pool of light. Brows drawn down and mouth set in determination, the child demanded:

"I wish to speak to the prisoner Sanwai."

"Prince Zuko?" The guard lowered his weapon. "What are you doing here?"

"Where is he?" Zuko took a step forward, dismissing the question with the sweep of a hand.

"Well, I would... need Lord Zhen's permission to..."

"Good idea." Zuko crossed his arms. "Would you like to wake him now?"

"Maybe you could speak to him in the morning, your Highness," said the guard, almost pleading. Anything to get this off his hands. "Even the prisoner sleeps-"

"No I don't." The voice came from a cell down the hall, the gravel tone unmistakeable. "Prince Zuko, over here!"

Zuko started down the hall toward the cell, the guard tagging along. "Your Highness, I really don't think you should be here," said the guard. "What if the man tries to harm you?"

"He's behind bars, and all I want to do is talk." Zuko produced a pouch from his shirt and removed three or four gold coins, which he dropped into the guard's hand. "You can stand guard right here if you like."

The guard, torn between unhappiness at the situation and preoccupation with his sparkling new wealth, spoke no more objections as they came before Sanwai's cell.

"My Prince." Sanwai waited there, kneeling behind the bars in a cell about six paces across and about as long that held a straw bed and a chamberpot and nothing else. His shaggy grey hair was ruffled, and the dim light could not hide the cuts and bruises on his face. "You're actually here." He stared at Zuko as though he had never seen anything like him. Then he remembered himself and bent forward in profound obeisance, putting his face and palms to the floor.

"I was curious." Zuko plopped down cross-legged on the floor in front of the cell bars. "Look at me." The man bowed even deeper. "Please?"

The rough-hewn peasant raised himself, halting, until he was kneeling with his hands on his knees. He gulped to find himself eye to eye with the prince.

"So, Sanwai of Tamalan." Zuko tilted his head at the man. "What did you have to tell me that was so important you risked, well..." he gestured around them, "this?"

"My village." Sanwai's voice burst out with the roughness of desperation. He moved closer to the bars, prompting the guard to tense, but only grasped the bars and leaned toward the young Prince. "Prince Zuko, you must help us. Lord Zhen means to starve us, and destroy our village-"

"Silence, peasant!" The guard lifted his glaive as he stepped toward the cell. "Stop your lies or I'll-"

"Let him speak." Zuko had not even budged, his eyes intent on Sanwai. The clear tone had the ring of command to it, and his calm profile in the lamplight was unwavering. "I will hear him."

The guard paused, seething; Sanwai swallowed and went on.

"It's the- it's the drought, sir. We have a reservoir behind my village, a dam we built with our own hands." He held up his own scuffed hands. "We have just enough water to get us through to the summer rains, and Lord Zhen..." he cast a sideways glance at the guard, "Lord Zhen wants us to release the water for his own fields." He sighed, and lowered his eyes. "Soon, he will send in his men to do it for us."

Zuko said nothing, his face expressionless. The guard struck the stone floor with the butt of his glaive. "The lands belong to the Lord of this land," he said, "and the water. What business do you peasants have keeping his own property from him?"

"He has the right to starve us?" Sanwai bared his teeth at the guard. "We have every right to the mountain streams—written by Zhen's own grandfather. I'd brought a copy of it with me, but pay no mind, one of your firebenders burned it."

The guard stepped threateningly close to the bars, glaring down at Sanwai. "I ought to go in there and teach you some manners, oaf."

"I'll do it," Zuko's quiet words cut across the argument. He stood up, eyes cold. "Open this door," he said to the guard. "I will teach the peasant what happens when he slanders a vassal of my father's."

"Ah, your Highness-"

"I said open it!" Smoke and sparks flew from Zuko's fist as he clenched it as his side, his mouth a thin line of rage.

The guard hurried to the cell door and undid the lock, sparing a look of contempt for the bleak, wide-eyed Sanwai. He opened the door-

And was struck from behind by a gust of heat, the force of it knocking him from his feet and sweeping him clear into the cell until he hit the far wall. Golden flames, searing in the gloom, filled the little cell and then dissipated as the guard struggled to catch his breath and his balance.

"Come on!" Zuko stood holding the cell door open with his body, right hand with the index and middle fingers outstretched and palm trained at the guard, the left stretched out at Sanwai. "Let's go!"

"What- why-" Sanwai looked from the guard to Zuko, eyes blank with shock.

"I will go to your village and see for myself. You need to take me there. Now hurry!" Zuko crouched into a fighting stance as the guard scrambled for his glaive.

He was diving for it when a rough hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Zuko winced in sympathy when Sanwai struck the guard on the jaw with a rock-like fist, throwing him across the cell with the force of the blow. He lay there and did not move.

Sanwai took the keys from the guard's belt and rushed from the cell, picking up the dropped glaive along the way. "Hurry, lad!" He pushed Zuko from the cell, then locked the door and tossed the keys away.

"You didn't have to hit him." Zuko ran to keep pace with the bigger man.

"If he's going to tell his master that he let a prisoner escape, he'd better have the bruises to show for it," Sanwai said grimly. "Besides, this keeps him quiet while we get out."

Zuko mouthed a silent "oh."

"Be that as it may," Sanwai sped down the stairs with Zuko beside him, "are you sure this is the only way, lad? Prince? You can just order Lord Zhen, you're the Prince!"

"My father could." Zuko slowed on the landing to peer down the hallway for any guards. "But I need to be sure of your claims before I alert him, and Lord Zhen would never let me leave for your village."

"Couldn't you _make_ him?"

"I have twenty guards and Master Lu," Zuko shrugged. "One of them was pretty handy against my cat." He pointed at the front door of the guardhouse and took the lead.

They tiptoed past a guard who snored on his feet. Once outside, they scurried across the grounds to put a building between themselves and the eyes of the patrol on the wall.

"So how far is it to your village?" Zuko asked conversationally. Sanwai looked ready to tear his hair out.

"You busted me out of there, lad, without a plan to get us out?"

"No one told me anything about your village!" Zuko answered in a heated whisper. "No one tells me anything." He looked away.

Sanwai's face softened, and he thought for a moment. "A day, day and a half's journey," he said. "A bit less on one of them wiggle-lizards."

"Mongoose dragons." Zuko rubbed his chin. "Maybe we could steal one."

"Taking you to our village will bring down Zhen's men on us." Sanwai heaved a herring-tinted gust of breath. " 'Twas about due anyway. It can't make things much worse."

"What we need is a head start." Zuko turned to Sanwai. "How long will it take," he asked, "on a giant eel hound?"

* * *

They could hear the bumping and shuffling as they approached the round shadows of the storage buildings that squatted in the dark. Zuko had heard the noise for some time as they approached the western edge of the castle grounds, and now Sanwai could hear it as well.

The two looked out from behind the storehouse next to the noisy one, listening to the beast thudding dully against the walls.

"My Prince," Sanwai's voice shook. "Maybe we should go back."

"Too late to 'my Prince' me out of this, Sanwai." Zuko looked around for any eyes that might be watching. "It's our best chance."

"Or the worst, lad. It's too dangerous." Sanwai jumped at another thud from the building. "Young males are tamed sometimes, but the females grow too big, and too wild."

"You said it yourself; we don't need to tame her. She's just trying to go home." Zuko slipped out from behind the wall. "We just go along for the ride."

"It's the going along bit that I'm worried about," muttered Sanwai as he followed.

When Zuko first mentioned the giant eel hound, Sanwai had started not so much in surprise but in recognition. A year ago, Kang and his men had captured a young eel hound that lived in the caldera lake at the peak of the volcano. Their one chance, Sanwai had said, might be to use the animal's homing instinct by getting on her back and then setting her loose. She would pass near Tamalan on her way up the mountain, and they could jump off there.

That was the theory.

Sanwai clutched at a crude bridle made of rope as he approached Zuko, who bent over the lock on the storage door. "Give me some cover." Zuko swept a hand behind his back. Sanwai obliged by standing behind him, covering him with his bulk. Zuko took a deep breath and held out a finger toward the lock. A flame formed at his fingertip, and he directed it towards the metal bar of the shank. Perspiration rolled off his forehead as he concentrated, focusing the thread of fire. A single point in the bar started to glow a heated red.

"Come on, come on..." he muttered. As if in response the fire grew larger and less focused, and it only seemed to get worse when he screwed his eyes shut and bit his lips in concentration. All of a sudden it grew into a huge flare of light and heat, and Zuko let out a cry as his palm convulsed open, bathing the lock and the wood around it with a sheet of flame. The fire went out almost as soon as it had sprung up and Zuko doubled over, grasping his shoulder.

"I couldn't do it." His face was pale in the darkness. "I can't focus the fire like Azula can..."

The lock was glowing an ominous red, and smoke rose from the door. Sanwai took one look at it and grabbed a shovel from the wall of the grainhouse. He slammed it down on the lock twice, and the heated metal gave away. He kicked the door open, dropping the lock to the ground. A rattling growl rolled from the darkness beyond.

"Come on, lad." Sanwai grasped Zuko's arm and pulled him through the door. "I won't have you feeling sorry for yourself when the hounds might be on us any second." He looked ahead, where the distinct smell and animal presence lurked in the enclosed space.

Another growl came from up ahead, too low to be heard but felt as a vibration on the skin. Zuko looked up, still wincing in pain, and held his hand out palm up. Flames formed over his hand, hovering there to light the darkness.

"Spirits help us," Sanwai swore as the room flickered into view. "She's huge!"

The eel hound had earned the name giant. Beyond the narrow passageway, wide enough for two men and about a story high, the storehouse broadened into a circular space two stories at the highest point. Yet with her neck upstretched the giant eel hound's head touched the ceiling above. and the top of her arched back was half again Sanwai's height. A sinuous tail as long as the rest of her body curled around the circumference of the floor, rippling with muscles as did her springy legs coiled to propel the body with incredible momentum.

Zuko gaped, and then reached blindly behind toward Sanwai. "Give me the bridle." His voice cracked.

"Ah, maybe I should do this." Sanwai stared up at the beast, sounding not at all sure.

Zuko snatched the bridle from his hand, slung it over a shoulder, and stepped out of the entrance passage with the fire in his hand. "Back me up."

The giant eel hound drew back across the floor as Zuko approached, yellow eyes focused on him.

"Come on," he said softly. "You're going to go home, and we get... away from here. We won't hurt you."

The beast's tail struck quick as a snake, sweeping across the floor, and Zuko jumped to avoid it. He landed crouching, losing the fire, and the flying sparks arced away to fall on the bits of dry hay and detritus that cluttered the round floor. The giant eel hound roared as the fire caught, yellow eyes glittering in the firelight as it backed up against a wall, away from the flickering flames.

"She's afraid... of fire," Zuko's voice was quiet with realization as he rose to his feet. In the growing light the burns and singes on the animal's tough hide were visible, and her feet scrabbled on the floor in panic.

"I'm sorry." Zuko approached the beast, his form outlined in the yellow flames. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean- oof!" He was knocked back by a lashing tail-strike in the chest, and was thrown back almost on top of the fire. He took off his vest, which had caught the flames. He paused as a thought came to him, and turned around to slap down the flames with the vest.

"Sanwai!" he shouted over his shoulder. "Open the door, and get ready to leave!"

Sanwai threw himself against the heavy door and opened it wide, letting the moonlight stream in. The beast looked at it, yellow eyes alert, the path to the outside almost clear of the licking flames.

Zuko stepped forward and thrust his palm at the remains of the fire, extinguishing it in an instant. The storage was filled with cool moonlight and acrid smoke; the eel hound's body rippled once, like a wave. A spark had returned to its eyes, a vitality missing from the dull months of monotony and cruelty. It moved for the first time in a long while like a creature aware of its power, a force that would not be denied.

Zuko slid the rope bridle from his shoulder and into his hands, positioning himself next to the passage leading to the exit. The eel hound's head came down and pointed forward at the door, and her powerful legs pumped forward.

Just as the beast's narrow head thrust into the passageway, Zuko threw the rope bridle in the way of her lowered nose. The great animal's head slipped into the crudely fashioned but sturdy noseband and headband as she ran forward, and Zuko was pulled from his feet with a startled shout. He was scraped onto the beast's back when she bulled into the narrower passageway while he was holding onto the rein in the main storage space. The corner where the round space met the passageway left a bloody scrape along his forearm as he rolled onto the eel hound's back and lay there gasping on his stomach, hands clutching the reins in a white-knuckled grip.

"Sanwai!" He spotted the peasant standing inside the door, gaping up. Zuko pried one hand from the rope reins and reached down as Sanwai reached up, and their hands met and clasped tightly in the middle.

Zuko pulled up with all his strength while Sanwai tried to clamber up, and meanwhile Sanwai's position looked more and more dangerous. The giant eel hound had grown up inside the grain storage and her girth was now bigger than the door. The door was just high enough, but her shoulders and front legs were filling its entire width—and Sanwai was caught between her approaching flank and the corner next to the door, about to be crushed between.

The Prince let go of the reins, slipping his bleeding arm through the loop of rope and grasping Sanwai with both hands. He braced his feet against the animal's back and pulled with his whole body. Sanwai also held on with both hands, feet struggling for purchase on the smooth, rippling flank. He raised himself mainly with the strength of his leg muscles, grunting at the effort, then thrust out a foot to use the back-bent joint of the eel hound's front leg as a foothold, its frantic motion to clear the door propelling him onto the beast's back. Zuko lost his balance at the abrupt loss of resistance and fell back, but Sanwai pulled him back up by the collar and grabbed the reins.

They both got down flat on the giant eel hound's back, and just in time; with a twitch and a twist the beast's shoulders cleared the door. The doorframe passed just above Zuko's and Sanwai's prostrate figures, actually bumping up against Sanwai's back as the giant eel hound stepped higher, narrowing itself to free its hindquarters.

And then the open night air hit them all at once, and the white-cold light of the moon. Zuko stirred and sat up, wide-eyed, as did Sanwai behind him. The night was no longer quiet; guards ran out, some still dressing. They shouted and pointed at the sight of the beast rearing to straighten in the moonlight, and at the two figures clinging to its back.


	5. Chapter 3: A Royal Departure 2 of 2

The giant eel hound did what it was born to do: It ran. It barreled forward through and over startled guards while the two passengers hung on for their lives. More windows were lighting now, more doors slamming open and shut.

"Where do we go?" Zuko raised his voice over the commotion.

"The West Gate!" Sanwai yelled in his ear, making Zuko cringe away.

"West Gate... west... all right." Zuko tried pulling on the rein, but it seemed to make no difference except to irritate the beast, which gave a shake of the head that reverberated down the length of the sinuous body, rattling them both.

"It's not working!"

"Of course not, she's never been taken to rein!"

Zuko cast around, then caught sight of a tree to their left.

"Sorry," he muttered, and pointed his palm at it. The tree burst into fire and the eel hound hissed in fear, changing course to the right. Sanwai and Zuko were almost flung off, and had to clamber back up to the arch of the back.

Just as Sanwai climbed up, he ducked and cursed as a bolt of fire came at his head. The beast jerked and changed course again while both man and boy lay down flat, both to avoid being thrown and being burnt.

"Hold your fire!" came a frantic voice. "Prince Zuko is with him!"

Zuko took advantage of the lull to send a gust of flame at the guards on the ground, pushing them back and correcting course at the same time. The West Gate came into view in time with the beast's thumping pace, shut and barred with guards in front.

"Unhand the Prince, Sanwai of Tamalan!" Zuko whipped his head around to see Captain Kang in pursuit on a Komodo rhino. It was much slower than the eel hound, but that didn't matter when the barred gate was coming up—and they both knew it.

Zuko leaned around Sanwai's broad frame to shoot fire at Kang, aiming just short so that the grass in front of the rhino caught. The fire-trained rhino stepped through with little urging, but it was enough to slow them down. The eel hound felt the heat and went into a flat run, and staying on her back became a perilous exercise. Sanwai held onto the rope reins, eyes trained forward and mouth set in a grim line, and tightened his legs around the beast's flank. He leaned forward to trap Zuko between his torso and his arms, giving him a secure position from which to concentrate on firebending.

The firebenders had begun to aim at the giant eel hound instead of the riders, and Zuko had his hands full diverting the flames. He could not catch them all, however, and the animal roared in pain and anger when the flames hit, her course becoming erratic as she staggered and spun.

"Enough!" Zuko leaned around Sanwai's left side to aim his fire behind. He moved his hands in a broad arc, setting the grass behind them to soaring flames in a fourth of a circle. The eel hound hissed and tried to veer right; Zuko whipped around to Sanwai's right and made another fourth-circle of fire behind them. The giant eel hound now ran straight forward, outstripping the firebenders and any pursuers.

They bore down on the West Gate, the guards standing with their backs to it now wavering at the speed of the charge.

"Open the gate!" Zuko thundered. The guards hesitated, then scattered when the sinewy length of the giant eel hound charged head on. She slammed into the gate, shaking it on its hinges.

"Unbar the door!" Zuko emphasized the order with a sweep of his hand while the eel hound grunted and looked about, trying to find an exit. Seeing the guards hesitate, Zuko pulled his knife from his pants belt and thrust it at Sanwai. "Or this man will kill me!"

The guards gaped; Sanwai fumbled with the knife, then brought it in a halting motion somewhere to the region of Zuko's ear. "Uhh, yeah! I reckon I will."

"You can tell your lord it was duress." Zuko held up his hand, which started to spark. "Now, unbar the gate. Your Prince orders you."

One of them threw himself against the bar; another ran to help, and in moments it had been drawn off the gates. Zuko smiled, the flame dancing in his hand.

"Now." His eyes were a fey gold in the growing brilliance. "Get out of my way."

As the guards scattered, the prince threw the fire in his hand not forward but back, raising a wall of flames behind the eel hound. Her hind legs kicked at the ground with the speed of panic, propelling beast and riders forward with a crash that left the gates flung open, one half hanging askew from a broken hinge.

The flames wavered and then parted to reveal a rhino and its rider. Kang swept his hand, dispelling some of the fire. He cursed when he saw what had become of the West Gate and threw a furious bout of flame at the ground, scattering his own men. He rushed outside, but his quarry was already a speck in the distance.

Beyond the walls choked with heat and smoke a streak of muscle and sinew sped into the depth of night, the two fragile lives clinging to her back borrowing her swiftness, for a little while.

* * *

The going got easier as they got the hang of staying atop Rippleback, as Zuko started calling her. They learned to lean the other way when she changed direction, made adjustments with their legs to keep balance, and tried to stay low for the sake of balance and to get out of the the stinging, whipping wind that their passage raised. When Zuko nodded off, Sanwai gripped the child tighter between arms that strained at the rope reins, and took charge of keeping the unresisting weight from slipping off. He knew firebenders, especially young ones, needed rest after taking the flames from their own life force.

The sky was grey by the time the hills ended and the hard rock of the volcano began. The giant eel hound seemed rejuvenated by that, as though being closer to home gave it a new burst of strength. At first it stopped from time to time to nibble at leaves and once to relieve itself, but soon it gathered speed and showed no sign of stopping.

Sanwai recognized the terrain closer to home and knew they would have to get off soon. He knew Zuko would rise with the sun, another firebender thing, and did not wake him just yet. Rippleback climbed with no sign of flagging though the mountain grew steeper. Just as the first rays of gold touched the sky, the young prince stirred.

And raised his head so suddenly he struck Sanwai on the nose, prompting a stream of swear words. "Mom?" Zuko called out.

"Never been anyone's mother, boy." Sanwai touched his nose to make sure nothing was broken. The prince looked back with sleep-fogged eyes, and Sanwai watched the memories return one by one.

"I ache all over." Zuko slumped forward with a groan.

"Get ready to ache some more." Sanwai looked around from his vantage point on the beast's back, the landscape passing by as Rippleback loped at a steady pace. They were climbing up a ridge that ran like a stone spine up the mountain, and on either side volcanic canyons fell away in purple-shadowed creases. "We need to get off, and this thing isn't stopping."

Zuko looked over his shoulder at Sanwai, and nodded. Sanwai recognized the implicit trust there, and his heart sank at the same time it soared. The boy shouldn't be trusting him. Zuko should be in Zhen's castle reading or dancing or whatever it was princes did, not traipsing out in the wild with a peasant on an untamed beast, on the run from his father's own vassal. Kid was being dragged into something he had no business in, all because Sanwai the old peasant fool couldn't take care of his own boy just when he was needed most.

Nothing to be done about it now. "Jump when I say so." The boy nodded once, and again Sanwai's heart ached from its strange double-flip.

They came to a place where the left of the path had a gentler slope covered with dew-glistening grass. It wasn't a long walk from home, and was as good a place as any. "Jump left!" He pulled at Zuko's torn and dirty shirt.

Zuko pointed his hand up the path and summoned a quick flame that plumed up ahead in smoke and fire, making the animal start and almost stop for a second. This would be their moment. A good boy, thought Sanwai. Firelord must be proud of him—as Sanwai was of his own kid, no matter what.

Sanwai pulled Zuko bodily from the animal's back and rolled with him, wrapping himself around the child to protect him from the fall and roll. This wouldn't begin to make up for dragging the boy into this thing, but there was only so much a peasant could do in this world.

* * *

"Are you all right, Sanwai?" Zuko peered at the man, who had rolled away from him on impact and had taken a moment or two to sit up.

"As rain, boy." Sanwai rolled his neck and shoulders and stood with a grunt, straightening his back with a pop. "You?"

"Not hurt, I just hurt all over," the prince answered brightly. "So where's your village?"

"Next canyon over." Sanwai pointed out over the valley of forest and rock, now coming into full view as the shadows rolled away from the rising sun. "It's not a bad walk, lad. We'll get there in an hour, and then you can rest."

Zuko nodded and looked up the rocky ridge at the speck vanishing up the slope, more rapid than ever after shedding its burdens. He bowed in her direction. "Sorry, Rippleback. Agni keep you, now."

"You set the beast free after a year in that grainhouse, and you're sorry?" Sanwai set off on a path down the valley.

"I did it by using her pain and fear," Zuko followed the big man. "And I actually enjoyed the bending. Like I really, truly believed in it." He walked in silence for a few moments. "It's like I wasn't me, but- someone else. And I don't want to be her... that person."

Sanwai waited for Zuko to catch up, then placed a heavy hand on the disheveled head. The prince tensed for a second, then relaxed, his head drooping under the weight.

"You don't like anyone suffering, lad," Sanwai looked ahead down the path. "You believed in what you did because you were helping us hicks, and that poor animal." He grinned down at Zuko. "That was some bending, too."

Sanwai dropped his hand, and gave Zuko a pat on the shoulder. Zuko looked up, a smile quirking at his lips. "Really?"

"I don't say what I don't mean. Not eddicated enough." Sanwai went on ahead, then turned back to Zuko. "You coming?"

Zuko followed him at a run, his light steps echoing in the forest at dawn. The sun climbed higher in the sky, showering its warm clarity down across the world.

* * *

Shun cleared the grasslands at a low-slung trot, the first hint of light in the east sending his shadow swinging ahead. Even in the dim light the signs of the passage were clear, the trampled grass and the deep footprints of an animal that carried much weight on small, nimble feet.

His chase had started as soon as the prince left his bedroom window. When the Western Gate was breached Shun had slipped out amid the chaos, but even his training was no match for the beast's pace; the fire prince had chosen well, he noted with approval.

Even if he lost the trail on the rocky paths of the volcano, he knew where Tamalan was and would find his quarry there. Unless the prince met some mishap along the way, but the peasant Sanwai was with him and Shun felt an implicit confidence for the man, with his roots reaching deep into this soil as a weathered tree's. Shun had been trained to trust his instincts, and he did in this. The fire prince would reach Tamalan safely.

He could not follow his instincts in other matters, and that left him unsteady on crumbling footing. He knew this, yet could not move to higher ground.

You will watch my brother and report all his movements to me, the princess had said, the child with the sweet little girl's face and the demon spirit that hungered and was never sated.

I cannot serve two masters, he had told her. Or said something equally foolish that did not belong in the mouth of a man trussed up for the slaughter and kneeling at her feet. Take me into your employ or bid me serve your brother. Not both, or end this now.

Oh, I know you serve _no_ master. She had laughed then. I might ask you to do just one little other thing, no more than what you did before. You'll do it, won't you? Say you will.

I will not, he had said, believing it at the time, self-righteous. it would be so sad to give you to the Earth Kingdom, she'd said in a soft coo that stayed with him still. I heard you take a long time to die in one of those underground cells that shrink little by little each day until you can't move or breathe...

The fear that touched him then was cold, like a blade to the bone. Shun the impostor had hung his head in defeat, watching the ground crumble under him to reveal the abyss of his own making.

The hawk that trilled on his shoulder before it flew up and circled overhead was heavy as sin, and the blade at his side dragged him down into the earth where waited the only punishment that fit his crimes, fit him like a glove so he might not move or breathe. He lived in that prison in all his dreams.

The wings of dawn rose blazing above the turn of the earth and drove him onward like fire, _her_ fire, to his prey, his false liege, the boy whose sister would not rest until her brother was in utter ruin. Shun ran on, jerking clumsy and unsteady at the pull of her strings.

* * *

Notes on fanon: The mentions of "spirits" and "Agni" come from other fan stories I've read, and firebenders rising (literally) with the sun comes from Second Nature by lazyartisan. In my mind the belief in spirits and the spirit world is more of a folksy, rural thing, while city dwellers and the ruling class place more emphasis on Agni.

_Next: Zuko and Master Lu each write two letters, and Zuko takes the express train straight to Awkwardville, his favorite—or at least most frequent—destination._


	6. Chapter 4: Tamalan 1 of 2

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 4: Tamalan**

* * *

民爲貴 社稷次之 君爲輕

The people are first in importance  
Then the spirits of the land  
The sovereign is the least of these.

孟子

Mengzi

* * *

The village had reason to be wary of intruders, these days, and so a watch had been set up. When the designated watchout saw Sanwai in the distance, he alerted the village and they crowded out into the dirt paths between their huts of mud and wood. Some ran out to the entrance of the village to meet him, wondering if he had accomplished the mission he had set out for the day before yesterday.

As he approached, however, they saw something that gave them pause.

"Who's that Sanwai's carrying on his back?"

Someone stranded? Wounded? Dead? The speculation grew as they went out to meet their neighbor and the stranger with him.

* * *

"Zuko... Prince Zuko. Kid." Sanwai jostled the boy on his back. "We're here."

Zuko, his head drooping against Sanwai's shoulder, let out a sleepy sigh as his eyes fluttered open. "Here... Tamalan?"

"Aye." Sanwai put Zuko down, where the boy stood yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"Dad!"

A young man in his late teens ran up to them and greeted Sanwai with a hug. A strong boy nearly his father's height if not his girth, he kept his hair in a topknot from which wisps of hair escaped. His clothes of faded red and brown were clean and well-kept.

"Khoujin." Sanwai's weathered face creased in a smile as he patted his son on the back. "Have you been behaving yourself?" The look he gave his son was serious, unlike his light tone.

"I was busy worrying about my old man." Khoujin stepped back, nodding in response to his father's glance. "How did it go?" He took in his father's appearance, his rumpled hair and clothes, the bruises and cuts. "What happened?" His voice rose as his fists clenched. "Did Zhen's men hurt you?"

"I'm fine, boy." Sanwai raised a hand. "As for my visit, it was..." he searched for the right word, "...not as expected."

He glanced at Zuko, who was bleary-eyed and swayed on his feet from time to time. He looked even less presentable than Sanwai in a singed shirt and dirt-stained pants with no jacket or tunic, his hair a thicket down to his shoulders and a scrape on his arm bleeding through his sleeve.

"Who's the boy, anyway?" Khoujin followed Sanwai's line of sight. His question was reflected in the eyes of the villagers who came up behind, their gazes on the boy who waved half-heartedly at them as he stifled a yawn.

Sanwai sighed. "Reckon I'll introduce him after he's seen the Elder and cleaned up a bit. Come along, lad." He took Zuko's arm and guided him toward the mouth of the valley. Zuko followed unresisting, into the village of Tamalan with its huts and fields nestled in the green valley.

* * *

"Astounding, most astounding."

The Elder was true to his title, his hunched body a construct of dried-out branches and his face a map of wrinkles and creases. Every emotion spread out in ripples and waves over the intricate network of lines on his face. What little remained of his hair floated in white wisps around his gleaming head and sunken face.

In particular Zuko tried very hard not to stare at the old man's eyes, or rather the right eye which was filmed over with white and obviously blind. Zuko had no idea how to deal with such a deformity. The Elder's remaining brown eye, however, pinned Zuko in place in shrewd scrutiny.

"A Prince of the blood come to our village! Hasn't happened in at least thirty years, I'm sure." He brought his face close to observe Zuko, who tried not to shrink away. "Those eyes! The royal gold. I'd recognize them anywhere."

"He's a prince, Lao Tai, not a circus animal." Sanwai looked up at the ceiling as though there might be help there. "They're usually cleaner."

"Hey!" Zuko glared at Sanwai as the Elder drew back and muttered to himself.

They were sitting in Elder Lao Tai's little room in his house at the edge of the village. It was supposed to be the room where the Elder received guests, but seemed to be his study and bedroom as well. The whole room was only a few paces across, and the Elder sat on a threadbare sitting mat behind a writing desk hewn from unpolished wood. Books and papers were stacked everywhere, and in the corner a faded futon and blanket had been folded away in neat rectangles.

"So what brings you to our humble town, Prince Lu Ten?" Lao Tai asked. Zuko's heart sank at the name, and Sanwai slapped his forehead.

"Prince Lu Ten has been dead these three years, Elder," Sanwai said with forced patience, rubbing his face with both hands. "This is Prince Zuko, his cousin."

"Ahh." The Elder nodded, seemingly fascinated by this turn of events.

"I, uh..." Zuko turned his thoughts away from thoughts of Lu Ten's death. It was too raw, entangled with events he didn't understand and emotions that tore at him still. "I'd like to make sure of your claims to the reservoir water." He paused, wondering more and more if coming here weren't a mistake. "Once I'm sure, I'll tell my father about your cause and stop Lord Zhen from opening the dam."

"So you'll be wanting to see the land grants," quicker than the eye, the old man's claw-like fingers took a scroll from the pile by his desk, "the attached covenants," he added a sheaf of papers, "and relevant decrees and precedents?" Two books were dropped next to the scroll and the papers, making Zuko sneeze from the dust.

Zuko looked down at the scrolls, papers, and books covering the little writing desk. "Yes." After a moment he added: "...I need help."

"Don't we all." The Elder ran a liver-spotted hand through his bits of hair. "And might I ask what exactly telling your royal Father is supposed to achieve?"

Zuko's head snapped up at the question. "Informing him, of course." What was the old man implying? "No matter what the law, my father won't stand for his own subjects being driven from their livelihoods."

"Oh, so he wasn't informed by the first five petitions we sent to the capital?" Lao Tai's eye fixed on Zuko's. "Or when we sent the blacksmith to present the sixth petition in person to the Palace?"

An unpleasant feeling stirred in Zuko's stomach as he looked from the Elder's wizened face to Sanwai's downcast one. "You never said-" he did not know why he felt betrayed, or by whom.

"We're a small village," Sanwai did not meet the Elder's or Zuko's eyes. "The palace gets petitions all the time, hundreds no doubt." More like thousands, Zuko thought. "Firelord can't look at everything." There was a desperate kind of hope Sanwai's his eyes when he looked to Zuko. "Maybe his own son's letter will have some weight. It can't hurt to try."

The elder's sigh rattled like dry leaves. "You're right, of course. I just don't want you to raise your hopes too high, Sanwai, and even if it works I am not certain it will save your-" he looked at Zuko sideways and fell silent.

"If it works, it will save the village." Sanwai looked down at the floor, his voice a subdued rumble. "I'll take what I can get."

"It'll work, I'm sure of it." Zuko's throat felt strangely tight. "My father's officials are greedy and corrupt men, keeping the Firelord in the dark. If I tell him the truth, he will learn of it and take action."

A look passed between the two grownups that looked like skepticism to Zuko, and the heat of anger drove him to his feet. "If you don't think so, I'll leave," he said stiffly. "Thank you for your time."

"Prince Zuko." The Elder's voice wheezed in his throat, but something about his tone gave Zuko pause. "Forgive me. I grow old in this backward place, and forget the basic courtesies." he stood, his legs shaky, and Sanwai hurried to help him up.

"No, that's-" Zuko started shaking his head, but stopped when Lao Tai put his hands together and bowed to him. Zuko gulped and bowed back.

"I would be honored if you wrote to your royal father for us." Lao Tai straightened. "And I thank you, as I should have already, for coming all the way out here on our behalf."

"It's really all right." Zuko was starting to feel the burn of shame. He waved a hand toward the desk, eager to turn to other things. "Do you have copies of these documents you can spare? And a place where I could write?"

Lao Tai nodded and started setting things up. He put the copied documents on a gaming board that seemed to serve as a second desk, and directed Sanwai to set out clean sheets of paper and writing utensils.

Zuko knelt at the desk running the lumpy inkstone over the inkwell, thinking about what he wanted to write. Then he picked up the brush and coated the well-worn bristles with ink, put brush to paper and began writing.

* * *

It turned out to be a short letter after all, done in half an hour, and would have been done sooner if Lao Tai hadn't hung over his shoulder criticizing every choice of word. Sanwai had had to threaten the old man with physical removal before Zuko could finish in peace. By the end of it Zuko was more on edge than ever.

Then the letter and the attached documents were rolled together and entrusted to a shrieking creature whose feather hung in mangy tufts, which everyone insisted was a messenger hawk. It tried to peck Zuko's eye out, which the others swore was its way of showing affection. Before Zuko could have second thoughts the alleged hawk was in the air and flying away northward, and there was no taking it back. Zuko watched it go and sighed, his shoulders light from getting the deed over with and his stomach tingling with dread at what might come of it.

"I'm Khoujin," said the tall, broad-shouldered boy who had brought the messenger hawk to Lao Tai's yard. "You came here with my father."

"Oh, you're Sanwai's..." Zuko looked from the tousled youth to the grim-faced man.

"Youngest, at number six." Khoujin grinned. "You saw me when you first came, but you seemed a little out of it."

"I didn't sleep well." Zuko yawned at the memory of being tossed every which way on the giant eel hound, and covered his mouth with a hand. "Sorry."

"What's your name?" Khoujin's honest curiosity reminded Zuko that he had been rude.

"Sorry, my name is-" he became all too conscious of his messy appearence, "-Zuko."

"Good to meet you, Zuko." Khoujin gave him a clap on the back that made his teeth rattle. "D'you know you have the same name as the Firelord's son?"

"Yeeeeah..." Zuko grimaced at the way Sanwai covered his smirk behind a calloused hand. "On a completely unrelated note, do you know where I can get a wash and maybe a change of clothes?"

"Oh! I almost forgot." Khoujin turned and walked away from Lao Tai's house, gesturing at Zuko to follow. "Let me take you to the reservoir. Zhilai is lending you his son's old clothes, we can pick them up on the way. I'll talk to you later, Dad." Zuko thought Khoujin's glance at Sanwai was oddly serious, but the mention of the reservoir crowded out any other thought.

"The reservoir!" There was an obscure thrill at seeing the place that was at the center of such a dispute. Zuko exchanged nods with Sanwai and hurried after the older boy. "Is it okay to take a bath there?"

"Sure. We drink from the well. The reservoir is for our fields. Just don't, uh," he winked at Zuko, "get _too_ comfortable in there, all right?"

Zuko protested he'd never do anything like that, and the boys' laughter mingled in the morning sun. Lao Tai came out to his yard and stood with Sanwai to watch them go.

"Is he truly the Prince, Sanwai?" Lao Tai asked after a silence only punctuated by the everyday sounds of the village and the voices of the boys diffusing in the air.

"You said it yourself, he has the eyes." Sanwai turned to look at the old man. "Do you doubt him?"

"If it weren't coming from you, I would have thought him a talented liar. A prince, here in Tamalan? Looking like that?"

"Prince Iroh would have done as much,"

"And no one else in that family. Or so I thought." The old man raised a white eyebrow. "Do you mean to tell me Iroh would have gallivanted all the way here on a childish half-baked plan?"

"I meant the other part."

"And what part is that?"

"Caring." Sanwai looked up at the outline of the volcano against the sky and the gleaming granite of the dam closer by. "Giving a hoot what happens to three hundred peasants in the middle of nowhere."

To that, Lao Tai said nothing at all. The sunlight grew over them both, and the boys' laughter echoed in the distance.

* * *

Lying in the soothing water and looking up at the sky beyond the hanging branches, it was hard to believe this was a place of strife.

The reservoir was a tree-shaded natural pool that lay upslope from the village, forty feet across and at least as deep. It overlooked the village on one end, where the waterway was stopped up with a stone dam so the water could be gathered and released as needed. The other end of the reservoir came up to the slope of the volcano, down which multiple mountain streams flowed in.

The most stable and plentiful streams flowed from the caldera on the top of the volcano, while other freshwater sources tended to come flooding down after rains and disappear soon after. Khoujin told Zuko how, over the generations, the men of the village had climbed the volcano to divert its wild streams into the reservoir."One of them died when he lost his footing and fell." Khoujin looked up at the rim of the volcano in the distance. "The shrine up that path there was built for him." He pointed to a little trail leading from the edge of the pool and through the trees. "He speaks to the spirits for us now."

"You have an altar to the Spirits?" Zuko's Uncle Iroh had made some vague comments about the spirit world, but if the description of a thing included the words 'Uncle Iroh' and 'vague,' that meant Zuko didn't understand a word of it.

"Sure. Doesn't everywhere have a spirit place?"

Not the capital, thought Zuko. If the city was dedicated to any spirit figure, it was Agni the god of sun and flame. There were temples and holy days like the summer solstice dedicated to the god; Zuko had attended enough large and stuffy state functions to know, in excruciating he didn't really know there were no "spirit places" in the capital, Zuko realized. Absence of proof was not proof of absence, as Master Lu told him again and again in their lessons, mostly when he was discussing one of Zuko's essays. And there were vague rumors of Uncle Iroh being touched by something uncanny when he'd traveled far away, but again the combination of 'Uncle' and 'vague' meant Zuko didn't understand much.

Moving his arms in circular strokes in the water to turn himself around, Zuko stared at the path leading to the unseen altar. Even if there were a spirit place at the capital, going there wouldn't be... proper. It was fine for someone as old and eccentric as Iroh, since old folk clung to their superstitions anyway. But a young prince with the benefit of his enlightened education? He shuddered to think what Father would say.

Which all went to say that this magic time, the spirit-time—where did that thought come from?—away from family, home, and retainers was the one time he could indulge in Uncle's bit of old-fashioned mysticism. It was a one-time thing, an adventure.

"Take flowers and fruit to the altar, if you want to go." Khoujin stood from his seat at the edge of the pool where he'd been dipping his feet, unrolled his pant legs and and put his shoes back on. "Bow first, and be polite. You never know with spirits." He walked along the edge of the pool, toward the path next to the dam that led down to the village proper. "I've got to work the fields. Will you be okay here?"

"Uh-huh!" Zuko grinned and waved at Khoujin. He was actually being left alone, like someone who could take care of himself instead of a child who had to be pampered and watched over.

Khoujin waved back and disappeared down the path, down to the floor of the valley and the village proper.

Zuko swam up to the dam and peeked over the edge. The main watercourse beyond the dam sloped down to the village and down the center of the valley, and from there towards the hills and lowland plains. In the village itself smaller courses branched out to the paddies and plots, spreading out into still pools in the paddies or subdividing into furrows in the fields. From up here the figures pulling weeds or working the water pumps looked small, like quaint wooden carvings.

It all reminded Zuko of the pictures of blood vessels, veins, and capillaries that he'd been shown. He realized those were exactly what the irrigation ditches and sluices and furrows were; pathways for the life's blood of this village, and the reservoir that wound its coolness about him was the beating heart.

Even so, the effects of the drought were showing. There were unused plots at the edges of the village where the sluices had been closed to conserve water. These grounds there were brown with dirt and death, the sheaves of straw from last year's harvest dry enough to crackle.

Having looked all he wanted, Zuko went back to his bath. After getting himself as clean as he thought he could he dunked his head underwater to rinse his hair out, and walked out of the pool with the wet rock rough under his bare feet. He dried off and dressed in the borrowed clothes Khoujin had left folded on a rock, the brown short-sleeved tunic over the dark orange shirt a style that had gone out of fashion long ago. The fabric irritated the scratch on his left arm, and he blew on it to cool the stinging.

He had sent the letter to his father, but he didn't know when he would receive an answer with the hawk having to cross the sea. Something Sanwai had said the night before stayed with him—that Zuko's being here would bring Zhen's soldiers down upon them. He pulled on the faded black pants that were a little long for him, thinking.

_A day, day and a half's journey,_ Sanwai had said. They had gotten a decent head start with Rippleback, but Zhen would have to hurry now that his plans were exposed to Zuko. The Lord of Azhoran had the perfect excuse to send soldiers, too, with the Prince being "kidnapped." Zuko ran his fingers through the snarls in his hair, wishing he could untangle his thoughts as well.

If he knew where the law stood, that was as good as having his father's answer. He did have a Master of Laws and Decrees at hand closer at hand than the capital, but how to get word to Master Lu and receive his advice?

Zuko gave up on ordering his hair and shook it out, spraying water in all directions. If the only messenger hawk the village had to send to the capital was that feathered bag of bones, he doubted they had another to send to Lord Zhen's castle. Well, no harm in asking. Maybe the next village over could spare one.

Zuko grabbed bands of cloth from the rock and knelt down to secure the loose cuffs of his pants around his ankles. As he tugged at the ankle bands, he turned his head to look at the little path through the trees. If he ever needed supernatural intervention it was now...

Just then he heard commotion from the village below and jumped to his feet. Were the soldiers here already? Heart pounding, Zuko ran to the path next to the dam and looked down.

The man walking into the valley cast a shadow before him. He was dark himself as shadow, clothed in black and peering warily from behind his hair at the people who pointed and shouted, or came forward with menace in their steps. The hawk on his shoulder flapped and screeched, its gaze as suspicious as its master's.

"Shun!"

Zuko leapt down the path down to the village, and realized too late that he was barefoot when the rocks dug into his soles. Too happy to care about the pain, he pushed past the muttering villagers to the mouth of the valley.

"Prince Zuko." Shun knelt, hair falling before his face as he bowed his head. "We must return immediately. I have come to-"

"You're just the man I wanted to see!" Zuko scooped the sleek messenger hawk from Shun's shoulder and made a twittering sound at the animal, prompting a confused stare from its inscrutable eyes. He turned away, shouting: "Elder Lao! I'll be needing paper and writing-"

He found himself facing a panorama of bowed backs as the villagers knelt to him in profound obeisance. He coughed and ran a hand through his unruly hair while the hawk nibbled at a stray lock.

"Good people, you may rise to face your prince." Then it occurred to him that it might be better for them to get a good look when he looked less like a wild hog-monkey. "On second thought, stay exactly where you are. Coming through!" The messenger hawk on his arm, he stepped between the prostrate bodies with care.

Once through the crowd Zuko escaped to the Elder's house at a flat run, the rocks painful under his feet and one untied cuff flapping around his ankle. He hoped with all the heat of wounded pride that he had hit the bottom of a humiliating day.


	7. Chapter 4: Tamalan 2 of 2

The second letter went easier than the first, in a hurried scrawl that was sure to earn Master Lu's disapproval. Zuko hardly waited for the letter to dry before he rolled it up with the relevant documents—the Elder had made a lot of copies in the village's quest for relief—and stuffed it into the leather cylinder for the messenger hawk. From his place next to Zuko, Shun watched it fly with a bemused look on his face.

The letter dispatched, Zuko had his hair combed and tied and the scrape on his arm bound with clean cloth by a girl so pretty and gentle that he found himself blushing the whole time, while Khoujin straightened out his clothes with a lot of bowing that he hadn't bothered with before.

He was escorted to the tree that rose from the center of the village to spread its boughs across the sky. In its sheltering shade waited the older men of the village, whiskered, grey, bald, or some combination of those. They all stood to greet him as Khoujin led him to his seat by the great trunk, Shun following behind. When Zuko sat down, they all bowed.

"Thank you for your kind greeting, people of Tamalan." Zuko bowed his head in acknowledgement, and gestured at them to sit.

"Thank you for coming, your Highness," said Elder Lao, once he had settled himself with Sanwai's help.

"So what happens now?" asked a man with a shiny pate and white whiskers, the remains of his hair down to his shoulders. "Will you order Zhen to stop trying to take away our water?"

"It's not that simple," Zuko answered. "I have sent information about your claims to the royal palace and to a Master of Laws and Decrees. If your claim is the correct one, the Firelord will order Lord Zhen to stop."

"It _is_ the right one!" The bald man struck his palm with a fist. "How can he drive us out to starve?" Shouts of assent followed.

"The Firelord my father will come to the correct decision." Zuko lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes, daring the man to say otherwise.

"So why are you here if you're not on our side?" asked another man whose rich grey beard covered his chest.

"I..." Zuko faltered. Why was he here, really? To see the situation for himself? But he had seen, and still he was telling these people to wait.

Or was he here because he had been bored and tired of the constant scrutiny, and wanted to get away?

"Shut it, Hu Lo," growled Sanwai. "Who else cared enough to send an answer, much less come see for himself?"

"It's too true," said a man, dressed much more expensively than the others, his full head of greying hair swept up in a topknot and his nose red with drink. "The future Firelord's care for the people is beyond all words." He stood to bow to Zuko before he sat back down. Zuko hid a frown; what did this man want from him? He preferred Hu Lo's bluntness to the richly dressed man's unctuousness.

"I asked a fair question, Sanwai." Hu's beard bristled with indignation. "You know what happens if the crops fail this year. Starve or leave, no better than beggars. We won't meet the tax allotments, and then we'll have to pay in heads. You have sons, man." He threw a sideways glance at Khoujin. "And so do I!"

"Pay in heads?" Zuko looked up at that. It brought to mind bags of human heads being forked over to the tax collectors, which he hoped wasn't it.

"It means... sending people to fight in the army." Khoujin's eyes were downcast as Hu Lo and Sanwai argued. "Young men, mostly. Even girls if they firebend."

"You send in recruits if you can't pay taxes?" Zuko's stomach clenched. This hadn't been in any of his lessons.

"Or you pay gold Fires, but you won't see much of that here. You can't even buy out if you're a firebender." His voice was hollow.

Zuko swallowed. "I never knew."

"It's not your fault, your Highness." Khoujin looked away. "You're not the one who makes the decisions."

"No." Zuko got to his feet. "But there is something I can do."

"Quiet!" He shouted over the bickering, which everyone had joined in by now. They ignored him, and Zuko felt the heat rise. His nerves felt stretched from lack of sleep, and the world made no sense.

So he spread his feet, raised one arm along the channel of the power while jerking the other back, and slammed the rush of fire into the middle of the gathering. There was an explosion of fire and soil, which the men jerked away from.

And just like that, Zuko had their full attention. "Listen." He swept his gaze at their stunned faces. "You have a more pressing problem. Lord Zhen may be sending in his men any moment."

"Because you're here!" Hu Lo pointed an accusing finger at him. Sanwai glowered and opened his mouth to speak, but Zuko was quicker.

"Because he wants your reservoir." Zuko stared the other man down. "He can't keep up the story that Sanwai kidnapped me, but while his men are here they can carry out his edict. It would have happened sooner or later."

"It's true," said Sanwai. Hu Lo said nothing.

"You need to prepare." Zuko thought quickly. "My bodyguard," he gestured to Shun who stood like a shadow next to him, "did not see any mobilization when he was leaving, but it's a matter of time. If my royal father's answer arrives first, you have nothing to fear." He felt a burst of relief at that thought. There was no way his father would abandon his subjects to starvation and beggary, no matter how the law stood. "If not, you need a way to hold Zhen off until then."

"And how would we do that?" Hu Lo looked skeptical.

"To start, how many of you are firebenders?" Two hands went up. One of them was a man in his sixties at least, and the other was Elder Lao Tai.

Zuko slapped a hand to his face. "We need help."

"Don't we all." The Elder nodded gravely.

* * *

It was dark by the time Zuko stumbled to his room at the Elder's house, determined to get a good night's rest. He must have seen the whole village from corner to corner as they planned the defenses, how to stop the firebenders, what to do against the rhinos, the wiggle-liz- the mongoose dragons...

He just hoped it wouldn't come to that. Their first line of defense was probably their best, but the thought was heavy his shoulders. It was all the more reason to get a sound night of sleep.

Then he pushed open the door to his guest room, and all thoughts of sleep fled his mind. A girl sat in the corner, demurely downcast eyes coming up to meet his wide ones. It was the pretty girl, maybe sixteen, who'd helped groom him earlier. He couldn't remember her name, but remembered that face with its fawn-like eyes and shy smile.

"I'm sorry. I have the wrong room." He took a step back.

"It isn't, my Prince." She rose and bowed, her thin white dress with the gold and red around the hems draping about her and hinting at curves that made it difficult to look away. "If it please you..." The lightest tremor entered her voice, and Zuko's heart started pounding in response. She came towards him, a subtle fragrance rising in time to her motions. All of a sudden it was hard to breathe.

"Uhh..." He sidled like a shellcrab along the wall, eyeing her as though she might pounce on him. Come to think of it, the idea of her on top of him biting and scratching wasn't unpleasant at all. He tried to work out why this might be, then all of a sudden his arm touched the adjoining wall and he found himself cornered.

She stood before him now, warm as a flame, and there was no easy exit from the spot he'd blundered into. He breathed in her scent, something fresh and flowery that made him want to bury his face in her hair just to check what it was.

"What's your name?" His voice was hoarse. It was something leaf, he was pretty sure. Shao Ye?

"Sa Ye, your Highness. I am yours to command." Again the little tremor in her voice pierced him through.

And now that she had trapped him she stood with her eyes lowered and hands folded before her, ready to melt into him at a word, a touch. He raised a hesitant hand to the scented darkness of her hair, wondering what she would be like to feel, to _taste..._

_Zuko, don't be stupid._ The memory tore into the fog of his mind, her face all sharp angles, the bored sigh in his ear exciting for reasons he couldn't explain. Mai's fingers had been firm on his, her other hand on his shoulder as she guided his hand that held one of her throwing knives. _You can't wish the target where you want it to be. Look at what's really there._

He looked. Sliding a hand down the silky flow of Sa Ye's hair, he put his fingers under her chin and tilted it up so she met his eyes. Up close she was just a girl, very pretty but still human, not someone who had just stepped out of one of his more embarrassing dreams. The heavy layer of powder on her face could not erase the shadows of bruises on her face, nor the fear in her eyes.

The girl started when his hands gripped her upper arms, then gave a tiny gasp of relief when he drew her away to hold her at arm's length.

"You don't want to be here. Why did you come?"

He didn't know what he had expected, but it wasn't for her to start trembling as her eyes filled with tears. Feeling like a complete dolt, he let her go and she sank gracelessly to the floor like any country girl might. Sobs burst from her, not pretty little pretend sobs designed to tug the heartstrings but wrenching gusts that racked her body and made her face crumple.

"Please don't cry." He knelt next to her, wishing Zhen's entire guard would burst in so he could get away. He strained to hear the words that came out in fragments through her weeping.

What he heard made him fall on his backside to the floor. "You're _pregnant?_" He tried to say, though it came out more like "Y-y-y-yuh p-p-p-pr-"

"I'm sorry." Sa Ye hiccuped and wiped her face, her hand coming away with a streak of powder and kohl. "I shouldn't've come."

She rose, heedless of her rumpled dress, and stopped. Zuko's grip on her sleeve was light, just his thumb and index finger on the red-and-gold embroidered hem. He held her eyes and did not look away.

"Could you tell me about it?" He had no clear idea what had driven her to his bedroom tonight, but the girl's desperation blazed from her and he suspected there was no one else to help.

Maybe he should stop championing these impossible causes. He might consider it when his heart stopped aching so much for them.

Her story came out little by little. What drove Sa Ye to the prince's room, it turned out, had been her own father. Zuko remembered meeting him earlier in the day—the unctuous drunk with the rich clothes. Zuko realized his fist was smoking when Sa Ye looked in alarm, and forced the fire down. Instead he entertained himself with thoughts of setting Deng Po's gaudy robe ablaze with him in it.

"He sold my sister the same way," Sa Ye said tonelessly. "A rich man from the city took her as a concubine, and gave him a good bride price. He drank it away, of course."

"And the Firelord's son was suddenly in the village." Zuko's stomach roiled.

"The chance of a lifetime." Sa Ye's bitter laugh was older than her years. "He was... negotiating, he said, with a petty noble, but he decided you were better."

"You also had the baby."

Sa ye blushed shell-pink, and Zuko's heart skipped a beat despite her disheveled state and streaked makeup. Deng Po wasn't delusional in his ambition to get rich off his daughter. "I'm so sorry, Prince Zuko. I don't know what I was thinking. I was at my wit's end, and even that seemed better than..."

"What were you afraid of?"

"If my father found out I made a child with a boy in the village, he-" she lost the struggle against her tears and buried her face in her hands. "I didn't want to lose the baby."

Zuko pulled Sa Ye into his arms, letting her muffle her wail against his shoulder. _That's what moms are like, _she'd said that day by the pond, and he ached to return to the peaceful afternoon by her side. He tightened his arms around the crying girl as if to keep himself from splitting apart.

After a few moments Sa Ye's sobs subsided and she lifted her head from his shoulder. "Thank you, Prince Zuko." She wiped her eyes as she drew back from him.

"What will you do now?"

"I don't know. Things are so confusing-"

At that moment the door to the room burst inward. Sa Ye flinched; without thinking Zuko put his arms around her with his back to the door, shielding her.

The door crashed to the floor behind him, and in the rush of smoke and flames Zuko bent over the cowering Sa Ye, holding her closer. Belatedly he remembered sending Shun out, over the man's protests, to scout and watch for Zhen's soldiers. He had no enemies here, he'd told Shun.

Zuko looked over his shoulder to see Khoujin step into the room, fire crackling around his clenched fist. "Get. Away. From her."

Zuko realized what this looked like in the red mist of rage, him on the floor holding Sa Ye who was in disarray and had obviously been crying.

He had the feeling that someone somewhere, call it spirit or god or fate, was having a good hard laugh at his expense.

* * *

Master Lu stood at his window and watched the messenger hawk fly away in the night, west toward the dark outline of the volcano and back to Tamalan. It followed in the wake of Captain Kang and the men who had set out this afternoon, but the bird would fly over their camp and arrive before the soldiers did. And with it would arrive the letter containing Master Lu's legal analysis of the situation in Tamalan.

_I should have burned it, _thought the Master of Laws and Decrees, not for the first time. The case had been simple enough; under the grants and attached covenants the residents of Tamalan had the right to the water in their reservoir. The Great Charter, signed by Zuko's own grandfather Firelord Azulon, prevented the nobility from overriding the legal property rights of the common folk.

"But it is more than a simple matter of right and wrong, you see," he told the shadowed figure lurking in the corner. Prince Zuko's wingcat, prowling for prey real or imagined, cocked its head at him as though asking him to elaborate. The little animal had followed him to his room after Prince Zuko's departure and showed no sign of leaving.

"The Great Charter gives protections to the commons, true—but Firelord Azulon signed it to appease the rich and educated common folk he desperately needed for the war." Master Lu started pacing the room. Shao Mei followed him a few steps each way, looking up at him with curiosity or anticipation.

"No one thought... at least, no one who could do anything about it thought to apply it to impoverished peasants out in these rural provinces." Shao Mei meowed when he lifted her up. "Standing on principle, little one. What an idea! How noble, how naïve, how-" he sighed and set the puzzled animal down. "How dangerous. How incredibly dangerous."

He turned again to the window where the hawk was gone from sight. Perhaps he should have burned his analysis on Tamalan rather than send it to Prince Zuko, but then what became of his obligation to advise his liege honestly and to the best of his ability?

Perhaps he, too, was making the dangerous mistake of standing on principle. It had been a bitter lesson in his life that principle was a precarious foothold, too easily eroded by the winds and waves of life.

Thinking this way, his mind moved to older things, of a time before the Firelords and even before the age of confusion that predated the Firelords. A time when history blurred into legend so much that perhaps it was no more than wishful thinking.

"And in his days," he recited into the night, "swords were made into plowshares. The people lived out the span of their days..."

He went to his desk and lit his lamp. The cat glided up into his lap, purring, while he spread out a fresh sheet of paper and poured water on his inkwell. Praying that she would not get into the ink this time, he ground fresh ink and started writing.

_Dear General Iroh,_

_Your Highness, I hope this missive finds you well. I send my respects from afar, and recall that in a previous conversation you made it clear that I may seek help from you at any time regarding the education of Prince Zuko. Remembering your generosity, esteemed sir, I humbly seek your wisdom on this matter..._

"He will understand what it means," Master Lu told Shao Mei, who mewed and lay flat as his sleeve billowed over her in tandem with his brush. Zuko could well have need of his most powerful and perhaps only unconditional ally at court, whether he recognized the General as such or not.

As the words filled the paper and the night grew deeper Master Lu tried to shake off his own doubts. A part of him whispered that Prince Iroh might be unable to do much, that events had been set in motion too large for anyone, no matter how powerful or well-intentioned, to control.

He just hoped he was wrong.

* * *

Notes: Mengzi, also romanized Mencius or Meng Tzu, was a Chinese philosopher from the third century B.C. who both inherited and developed the ideas of Confucius. The quote at the start of the chapter is from Book 7, Part 2, Chapter 14 of _Mengzi, _or _The Book of Mencius._

The Great Charter is obviously a parallel to the Magna Carta signed by King John of England, as it is what Magna Carta means in English. The Magna Carta, though, was about noblemen's rights against their king rather than commoners' rights against the nobles.

* * *

_Next: We take a detour to learn more about the legend of the Dragon King._


	8. Interlude 2: Legend of the Dragon King

The opening quote is from The History of the Three Kingdoms by Kim Bushik, a book written in the 12th century A.D. about ancient Korean history in the era of the Three Kingdoms. King Munmu ruled the Korean peninsula from A.D. 661 to 681, and was the king who defeated the other two kingdoms to unite the peninsula.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Second Interlude: Legend of the Dragon King**

* * *

鑄兵戈爲農器

And in his days, swords were made into plowshares

驅黎元於仁壽

The people lived out the span of their days

薄賦省徭

Taxes were low and the labor light

家給人足

The houses were rich, the people sated

民間安堵

All knew comfort in the walls of their homes

域內無虞

And there were no cares in all the land

倉廩積於丘山

Mountains of grain enriched the storehouses

囹圄成於茂草

And weeds grew in the unused prisons

可謂無愧於幽顯

There was no shame to the ancestor spirits

無負於士人

And no debt owed to the people.

三國史記 文武王 下

The Reign of King Munmu Part 2, from the History of the Three Kingdoms

* * *

The back room of the little mechanic shop was quiet in the evening. Models, spare parts and hand-written order slips cluttered the small room. A table stood in the center of the confusion, where a cheerful and comfortably plump woman entered numbers into a ledger. Next to her, a stout man with calloused hands sat back, relaxed, reading her figures from receipts and notes.

Just then a door in the back of the room opened, and small feet pattered across the cluttered floor. A head of tousled black hair peeked above the desk, then sparkling brown eyes and a snub nose.

"Lijin." His mother reached out and smoothed back his hair, which simply sprang back to its former state when he shook his head out. "Not in bed yet?"

Lijin shook his head. "I've been wondering," he began.

"What about?" His father patted the chair next to him, which Lijin promptly climbed up to. His mother marked down the last of the figures and set the ledger aside to dry. She waved a hand at the old stove in the corner, making the flames leap up in lively gold.

"Mom, Dad." The rejuvenated glow from the stove cast the little boy's face into bright light and deep shadow. "Who's the Dragon King?"

His parents exchanged a glance. "Where d'you hear about the Dragon King, little fellow?" asked his mother. "School?"

Lijin hesitated, then said: "Tea shop."

"What did I tell you about eavesdropping?" His father frowned at the boy.

"I didn't eavesdrop, I swear!" Lijin shook his head. At his father's wordless glance, he added: "I didn't have to. They were really loud about it."

His mother sighed. "What did they say about the Dragon King?" She muttered under her breath: "The fools."

"Something about..." Lijin scrunched up his face. trying to remember. "The war, and how hard it was, and how if only Prince Iroh became the Dragon King things would be different." His gaze wavered, then he looked down at the desk, whose surface was entirely covered with papers.

"They- they also said," Lijin continued in the silence, "that they're rounding up the younger firebenders again."

His parents exchanged deeply troubled looks at that, and said nothing for a few moments. Upstairs, they heard the clattering of dishes as their daughter cleaned up after the family's dinner.

"Would the Dragon King win this war?" Asked Lijin in a small voice. "Can Prince Iroh do it?"

"Spirits of flame know he tried, child." His father's eyes took on a faraway look. "But that's not what the Dragon King is - was - about."

"Tien Shou," his wife said, a tone of warning in her voice. The mechanic, however, shook his head.

"He'll be hearing more things the way things are going, Shiri. Better he know from us."

Shiri did not look happy, but did not object when he continued.

"The Dragon King is from our old history, or from our stories. It was so long ago, it's hard to tell which."

"What did he do?" Lijin asked excitedly. "Did he kill dragons, like Prince Iroh? Was that why they called him the Dragon King?"

"No, he..." Tien's mouth compressed in a thin line for a moment. "They say the first Dragon King _was_ a dragon, or his ancestors were dragons. No one is sure. Like I said, it was a very long time ago."

Lijin looked confused; his father hastened to explain. "What he did, Lijin, was protect the common folk." He tousled his son's hair. "Before the Dragon Kings, the Fire Islands were split between warring lords, and life was very dangerous in the middle of all that fighting. Often they would burn whole villages to the ground trying to gain an advantage over each other."

"The Dragon King ended all that?" Asked Lijin. "How?"

"By uniting the country as one nation, the Fire Kingdom. He made all the lords swear fealty to him, and decreed - ordered - that differences should be settled one-on-one with an Agni Kai instead of war. The nobles might not have liked his rule, but the common people united behind the Dragon Kings. Things were peaceful while the Dragon Kings were on the throne."

"What happened to the Dragon Kings?" Lijin's face was earnest in the reflected firelight of the stove.

"The line ended," Tien Shou said carefully. "The Kingdom fell apart, and we didn't become one nation again until the first Firelord took power. Some say he was a descendent of the Dragon Kings, and that helped the Firelord unite the country."

"So the Firelords are like the Dragon Kings coming back?" Lijin knit his brows together, working things through in his head.

"Something like that," said his father, not quite meeting the boy's eyes.

Lijin looked like he was going to ask more questions, but then footsteps sounded on the stairs behind the door he had come through.

"Hey, Squirt." The door opened brusquely. A girl of sixteen or seventeen held it open while beckoning to Lijin, the pink apron she had tied over her clothes incongruous against her crisp, almost military bearing. "You should be in bed. You too, Mom, Dad, come up and get some rest."

"Dad was telling me a story, Yenzi," Lijin said brightly, causing the girl's severe amber gaze to fall on their father. Tien cast a mock glare at his son.

"You can tell him stories in bed," Yenzi pointed out. "You have school tomorrow, Lijin. Come on."

"She's right, dear." Shiri stroked Lijin's head. "Yenzi, could you put him to bed? We'll be right up to say good-night." She urged her son from the chair with a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't be too late," said Yenzi, giving Lijin a hug and taking his hand when he crossed the room to her. She was just about to close the door when she caught sight of the merrily crackling stove. "And _please_ go easy on the coal. We'll run out before the next rations at this rate."

Yenzi let go of her brother, concentrated for a second, then brought down her hands palms down, tamping the flames down to a calm glow. She nodded to herself, satisfied. "Let's go, kiddo." The door closed behind them, and two sets of footsteps trooped up the stairs to the residence.

"What a girl," Shiri chuckled as she started tallying the numbers in the ledger on a worn abacus, the red and brown stones flicking up and down at her expert fingertips. "The real boss of our house, let me tell you."

"I told you, it comes of being a firebender." Tien Shou waggled his eyebrows at his wife as he stacked the receipts into separate piles. "Just as well Lijin shows no signs of it, just like his old man."

"No, he doesn't." Shiri checked the number on her abacus and took up a brush from the inkwell, coating the bristles in black ink. "Thank Agni," she added in a low voice.

There was silence for a few moments while Shiri entered numbers into the ledger with careful brush-strokes. Finally Tien Shou said, "We should have a talk with the boy. He can't go around talking about the Dragon King."

Shiri laid her brush on the inkstone, then cast a wry look at her husband. "Won't be easy to explain why not, after you all but said the Firelords are the new Dragon Kings."

Tien Shou tied off a stack of receipts with cord, then spread his hands. "What could I do? There's always the chance he could repeat what I said, and I wasn't about to tell him they're nothing alike. It's too dangerous."

"Maybe you should talk to your loudmouth friends about what they say where children can hear." Shiri snorted, then fell quiet. "Though maybe they're right - about Prince Iroh," she said, a little wistfully. "Maybe he could have been a new Dragon King, ended this war... or at least made things easier."

"Shiri, don't-" Tien Shou shook his head, but she took the ledger and plopped it in front of him, sending scraps of paper flying in all directions.

"Look at the numbers, husband mine. Look at them." She jabbed a finger at the pages. "After the war tax, we have enough to keep the shop and our home and that's it. How much do you think old Lord Zhao pays? What about Lord Koe?"

Tien Shou put a strong arm, muscled from years of heavy work, around his wife. After a few moments she whispered: "They're rounding up the young fire-benders."

Tien Shou swallowed. "They don't send girls to the front, usually. If she is- if they do make her join, we'll try to get her posted here in the city. One of the safer colonies if we can't."

His wife nodded, eyes downcast. It meant more bribe money they could hardly afford, and they both knew it. They also knew they would pay every last coin, and more. Tien Shou smiled with an effort, stroking her back with round, smooth strokes. "We're both tired. Let's go to bed."

They tidied up the desk, and at the doorway Shiri cast her hand down, turning off the stove and candles with one swift motion. Husband and wife closed the door and retired upstairs, leaving the room in darkness except for the last orange glow in the stove, a remnant flame that was slow to cool.

* * *

_Next: A rural family drama unfolds before Zuko's eyes. As if reality weren't bad enough, he also sees things that aren't there. Or aren't they?_


	9. Chapter 5: The Reservoir 1 of 3

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 5: The Reservoir**

* * *

王平時常謂智義法師曰  
The king said to his confidante monk:  
朕身後願爲護國大龍  
After death I wish to be a great dragon  
崇奉佛法 守護邦家  
To uphold the faith and watch over the nation.  
法師曰 龍爲畜報何  
Asked the monk, Why do you wish a beast's karma on yourself?  
王曰 我厭世間榮華久矣  
And the king said, I have long tired of the world and its glories.  
若麤報爲畜 則雅合朕懷矣  
If my karma leads to rebirth as a beast, I will be glad.

三國遺事  
Stories from the Three Kingdoms

* * *

Khoujin took a heavy step into the room, the fire hot around his white-knuckled fist. "Get. Away. From her," he said through clenched teeth.

Zuko gaped and stared for a moment as his arms tightened around Sa Ye, who had gone rigid with shock. His eyes narrowed in resolve.

The next instant Zuko jumped into the air, flinging himself to the corner farthest from the girl. Khoujin gave a shout, and a streak of fire followed Zuko. The prince threw out both arms and the flames dispersed, but the force of it caught and threw him to the far wall with a _crack._ Zuko flopped to the floor, a sizable dent and a web of cracks on the wall behind him.

He looked up, dazed, and his eyes widened at the sight of another fireball flying his way. He rolled out of the way just as the fire struck the spot where he had been, singeing the floor.

"Sa Ye, get out!" Zuko rolled to a crouch and jumped to his feet while Khoujin took another step into the room. The young man's face was pale and set, his teeth bared in a snarl.

"Khoujin, no." Sa Ye's voice came out a frantic whisper.

"I thought you were different." Khoujin's words were a low growl, his eyes fixed on Zuko. "I never thought you would-" he gave a sideways glance at Sa Ye crouched in the corner, and his teeth clenched. "How old are you, _twelve?_ And you're- you've-" he shook his head, unable to go on.

"I'll be fourteen this winter," Zuko said indignantly, and had to dodge when Khoujin kicked fire his way. "Khoujin! Listen to me!"

"You won't take her from me!" Khoujin thrust out both hands and let loose with a torrent of fire. Sa Ye screamed and curled protectively around her middle; Zuko's eyes widened at the sight of her even as the flames rushed at him.

"That is _enough!_" Zuko blocked Khoujin's attack with his forearms crossed before him, though his back was slammed against the wall again. He bounded back to one foot as the other spun through the air, flames gathering along the circular motion of the kick.

* * *

Outside, the stillness of the night was broken by the flickers of fire and shouts coming from the east wing of the village elder's home. Smoke rose from the guest room there, and the smell of burning.

"I'll flay his fool hide from his bones!"

The grizzled man added his own contribution to the night's cacophony as he opened the Elder's front gate of waist-high woven branches as though to take it off and hurried across the weed-grown garden.

"Calm yourself, Sanwai." Lao Tai already stood in the yard leaning on his cane, watching his guest room light up with bouts of fire. Sanwai gave an incomprehensible growl and tried to barge past the old man. He stopped when the Elder lifted his cane, barring his way by pressing the stick of wood across Sanwai's broad chest.

"I think, old friend," Lao Tai's one good eye glanced up at Sanwai, "Prince Zuko has the situation under control."

"But-"

At that moment fire rushed out of the newly-doorless entrance to the guest room. Along with it came Khoujin, who flew out the doorway and tumbled down to the yard at Sanwai and Lao Tai's feet.

Zuko appeared at the doorway, his hand out and ready to attack.

"Now." He looked down at Khoujin sprawled on the ground. "Are you ready to listen?"

* * *

The sun rose from the sea and cast its long rays across the grassland, all the way to the little valley tucked into the volcano's slope. On his way up to the reservoir Zuko passed workers coming down from opening the sluices in the dam for the morning's watering. He acknowledged their bows with a nod and resumed his walk up the sloped path along the glistening waterway, past the dam and to the quiet pool beyond.

He squatted at the edge of the water, his mind ranging everywhere without staying anywhere, like some restless honey bird-bee. He thought of home, and Uncle's warm hand on his shoulder and Father, distant and revered as the sun itself. He thought of Azula, the gleam of gold eyes in the dark. He remembered Shun's report about Captain Kang and his men being more than halfway to Tamalan. He thought of Lord Zhen and Master Lu, and wondered how Shao Mei was doing.

_Today,_ he thought. Today, Zhen's Captain of the Guard and his men would reach Tamalan. No matter how it ended, it ended today.

And with that, his mind drifted to the one thing he had been trying not to think about: The talk last night with Khoujin and Sanwai.

They had admitted readily enough that they had been hiding Khoujin's firebending. It wasn't something they could get around, after what happened. And slowly the story had come out as they sat drinking tea in Elder Lao Tai's sitting room-bedroom-library-workroom-gaming room, with Zuko guessing some parts and the father and son or Sa Ye confirming with words and silence.

That Khoujin was the father of Sa Ye's child, Zuko had guessed the moment the boy burned down the door to Elder Lao's guest room. That Khoujin had been hiding his firebending to avoid the draft was, again, something he had been able to figure out.

What he had not understood was why Khoujin and Sanwai had stood by while Deng Po made plans to send Sa Ye off to another man. That is, until he remembered Khoujin's firebending and his reasons for hiding it.

"Deng Po knew you were a firebender, or guessed. If you," he indicated Sanwai and Khoujin, "revealed Sa Ye was pregnant, or tried to derail Deng Po's plans..."

"The rat-weasel just might squeal to the Grabbers," Sanwai had said, and Zuko guessed that the word meant forcible military recruiters. "To get even, or get my boy out of the picture. Or both."

"I wanted to run away with him." Sa Ye looked at Khoujin, then down at the floor. "But where would we go? How would we live?"

"The only way I could think of was giving my boy some better prospects," Sanwai went on. "I signed all my lands over to Khoujin, and got portions from my other kids. Had to twist some of their arms, but I did it." Looking at the man's big hands, Zuko thought at least some of the arm-twisting must have been literal.

"But then Lord Zhen wanted the water in your reservoir."

"Making it all useless." Sanwai's eyes were downcast. "We would have to use the groundwater for our crops, and it would be tight even then."

"You might not even have a village anymore," said Zuko. "Better men than Deng Po would be tempted to send their daughters off to keep them from starving."

"I was desperate," whispered Sanwai. "The old drunk mightn't accept Khoujin if we had the best harvest since the Dragon Kings, but I _knew _there was no hope if the reservoir was emptied."

"Desperate enough to appeal to me at the procession with Lord Zhen."

"You were the only hope I had, your Highness." Sanwai knelt, bowing his head to Zuko. "You still are." Khoujin knelt next to him, shamefaced; Sa Ye's gaze at him was full of hope.

Zuko stood and turned away from them to Lao Tai. "I'd like to rest now, Elder. Maybe another room, if you would be so kind."

All through the long night, alone in the darkness, Zuko had woken more than once to old memories and nightmares. At dawn he had risen and come up to the reservoir, needing to order his thoughts.

Now he gazed into the water at himself, not quite the child he used to be but very far from a man. Out of habit he looked for signs of facial hair, then stopped and thrust out a hand to strike the water and send ripples across the image.

It was the face of an irresponsible little kid. A boy who'd come haring all the way down here, causing no end of trouble and worry on the word of a peasant he had never met before in his life.

All of a sudden ached for home. He wished he could talk to Uncle or Mai, even Azula. They'd all tell him he was an idiot, but Uncle would say it in some obscure proverb and offer him tea, Mai would just say it then smile and get his mind off it, and Azula would laugh at him until he was so angry he forgot to be angry at himself.

He had no idea what Father would say, and shrank away from the thought.

And what would Mom say?

Zuko jumped to his feet and kicked off his shoes. He went into firebending stance, going through his katas rapid-fire. He couldn't start thinking about her on top of everything else.

Yet even though he went through his morning drill so vigorously he boiled up in his borrowed clothes and his face dripped perspiration, the memories of the last day he saw his mother dribbled back with every breath of flame and every jab of a fist in the air.

_Dad's going to kill you. _In his memory Azula smirked from his doorway, then dropped the singsong voice. _Really, he is._

Zuko thrust his fists in the air, one after the other, sending out a fireball each time. Stop thinking, he berated himself. You get caught up in these useless distractions, that's why you never beat Azula.

_You must know the pain of losing a firstborn son... by sacrificing your own!_ Zuko knew, had always known that Azula's memory was perfect. He heard his grandfather in her imitation, the choice of words, the pitch of the Firelord's voice.

Zuko grit his teeth and spun in a flaming kick, creating a circle of fire that burned the grass around him. The smoke stung his eyes. _Stupid._

_You were the only hope I had, your Highness._ Sanwai's words came back to him. _You still are._

Zuko gathered the fire within himself, the burning in his eyes and the hollowness in his chest, the longing that had no name and no face.

_I was desperate,_ said Sanwai in memory. The peasant man who had so little and could do so little gave everything and did everything for his son and unborn child.

Because that was what fathers and grandfathers did, wasn't it? They did everything they possibly could for their children and grandchildren.

Didn't they?

Zuko let out a hoarse shout and took a running leap to the water's edge, thrusting his palm out over the pool as though throwing something from himself. A jet of fire rushed out into the air, its brilliance leaving spots in his vision. The fire stretched itself over the width of the pool until it dissipated with nothing to burn.

He fell to his hands and knees at the edge of the water, gasping for breath. He could lie down here and sleep for days.

"Azula always lies," he told his reflection, and lowered his head into his arms.

* * *

"Think he'll be all right up there?" Sanwai gazed up at the plumes of smoke and fire rising over the reservoir.

"Why not?" The Elder shrugged, then pointed a boy carrying a rock toward a spot to lay it down. "I think," he added quietly, "he has some things to work out on his own."

The villagers were fortifying the town under the direction of the prince's bodyguard, digging trenches and laying stone walls to deter the approach of Kang and his men. Those who could wield a weapon drilled in formation with the bodyguard, who was called Shen or Shin or something.

"I don't feel good about this, Lao Tai." Sanwai lifted a rock onto the wall with a grunt. "Boy shouldn't be here in the first place. Not putting himself in danger like this."

"And you are the one who decides this?" Lao Tai sounded amused. "I thought Prince Zuko came here of his own will, unless there is something you are not telling me."

"There's sure things I could have told _him_ at the time." Sanwai's face darkened.

"That your love for your son was what drove you? I don't believe that changes anything." Lao Tai glanced at the men and boys in their practice, then looked up at the flames above the reservoir. "We still need the reservoir—and the Prince." He turned to the wall, examining it with a critical eye. "If he chooses to leave, he can."

"I know." The last part came out a groan as Sanwai heaved up another rock. "But then what becomes of us?"

"Likely no worse than if the prince never came." Lao Tai looked up at the wall which rose a hand's-width higher than his head now. "If it comes to starvation my end will be quicker than otherwise, but it will still come in my home, in my room. But what about the rest of you, the young ones?" He looked to Sanwai, then at Khoujin further down the wall, and Sa Ye carrying food to the workers. "I would not be there to guide you, and an old man worries."

"You?" Sanwai snorted. "You'll outlive us all, old man." Then he looked up, shading his eyes against the sun. "Is that a hawk?"

The bird glided down the morning wind to circle over them, then honed in on the dark-clad figure showing a villager how to hold his spear. The bodyguard looked up when the winged shadow passed over him, and raised an arm. The hawk swooped down at him to perch on his armguard, flapping its wings and letting out a screech.

Shen or Shin or whatever his name was opened the cylinder on the hawk's back and took out a rolled-up sheaf of paper. He glanced at the red ribbon holding the papers in place and looked up at the reservoir, which only had a little smoke rising from the edge now. The man cast his arm up, letting the hawk fly away, and turned toward the path up the dam.

Just then Elder Lao Tai went still, his clouded white eye narrowed as though it focused on something in its blindness. "Wait," he called to the bodyguard. "Let me take it up to him."

The man took a step back, clutching the letter to himself as though defending it. Lao Tai doddered over, holding out a bony hand. "You still have drills to finish and I should like to stretch my legs a little." His brown eye bored into the bodyguard's, and the guard was the first to look away. He handed the letter to Lao Tai with a shrug.

The Elder gestured. "Come along, Sanwai. I'll be needing your arm."

"What was that?" Sanwai caught up with Lao Tai as the weapons drill resumed behind them. "Since when do you play messenger boy?"

"Since I felt... movement... from the spirit place," Lao Tai muttered back. "The swordsman may be the Prince's guard against physical threats," he gave a small grunt as the path started sloping up, "but I can't help but think I'm better qualified to handle this kind of thing."

"The spirits?" Sanwai hissed as he lent the Elder his arm. "What's their interest in him?" The whites showed in his eyes, which grew restless with fear.

"I've no idea," Lao Tai answered tartly. "I don't speak to them on a regular basis, else would I be so sane?" Sanwai looked like he had something to say to that, then thought better of it.

They climbed the rest of the way in silence, the Elder out of breath by the time they arrived at the pool. They looked around but did not see the Prince anywhere.

"If he's at the spirit place..." Sanwai turned to look at the dirt path winding through the trees.

He flinched when a raw scream of pain and terror drifted down to them. It echoed off the water and the slope of the volcano, the memory of it hanging in the air.

Sanwai met Elder Lao Tai's gaze, then turned and ran up the path to the spirit place where the scream had come from. The Elder followed as quickly as his aged legs would let him, white brows clamped down in a scowl.


	10. Chapter 5: The Reservoir 2 of 3

Zuko raised his head from his arms. He might have heard the flap of wings or a screech; he didn't remember doing so, but he looked up in time to see a messenger hawk, probably Shun's, circle out of the air and to the ground.

It must be Master Lu's answer. Zuko's heart sped up. he knew the message the hawk carried was important, but he couldn't deal with it just yet. Someone would carry the message up to him and he would have to see them, talk to them, and make a decision. It was all too much.

He turned the opposite way and caught sight of the little path that curved up through the trees. He remembered how it was supposed to lead to the altar Khoujin had told him about. The sunlight slanted onto the path through the trees, lighting it a calm gold.

At the sight of it a stillness fell over him like a blanket, muffling out the sounds of the world and even his own thoughts. He straightened and stood, getting to one foot and then the other.

He bent to pick a handful of yellow flowers from the water's edge. Something told him fruit would be waiting along the path. He felt like he had been doing this his whole life.

The dirt was dry and warm under his feet; the smell of the forest was sweet in the air. He snapped off a branch bearing some kind of berries just coming into their first blush. The path shone ahead of him, the air frozen in a moment of brilliance. He had the sense that he walked outside of time and had been walking for a very long while now, and would be walking longer still.

The path ended in a little clearing. A slab of granite propped up by uneven boulders on either side formed a kind of table, sprays of red and yellow flowers blooming around it. The remains of dried flowers and desiccated fruit lay on the slab, marking this as the altar.

The moment Zuko laid eyes on the altar the world snapped back into motion, the rustle of the trees and the sighing wind, the chirps and tweets of unseen creatures. Zuko looked around blinking, and took one hesitant step forward. Then another.

Just a bit of harmless superstition, he thought. No one needed to know. If he ever needed guidance or at least comfort, it was now.

He went to the altar and, bowing once just to be safe, swept the remains of the last offering away with his hand and placed his own. He took two steps backward and put his hands together to bow from the waist. With no idea what to say, he listened to the sounds of the woods before he opened his mouth.

"I'm scared," he blurted out, then stopped. This wasn't the opening he had envisioned at all. He worked his mouth for a few moments, trying to think of something better, before he gave up. Who was going to hear him anyway?

"It's hard to want what I want, because I might be wrong." The words rushed out of him once he let them. "What if the law says, if Father says I have to ignore these people? What happens to them if I don't help, Sanwai and Sa Ye and everyone?" He looked down, his eyes burning as he bit his lips. "Why do these things happen in the _Fire Nation?_"

He bowed again and waited for he didn't know what. The same gentle sounds of the forest came to his ears, and a warm breeze stirred the strands that had come loose from his ponytail. He straightened, looking around for anything unusual, and finally turned to go.

Well that was stupid, he thought. What did he expect, though?

He found his way blocked by great writhing coils of red, the iridescent scales flashing in the sun. He frowned; that couldn't be right.

He rubbed his eyes and looked again, but the giant body as big around as three silk-pythons was still there. The undulations of powerful muscles caught his eyes and drew his gaze upward, up the huge muscled coils glittering from salmon to blood-red, up past a pair of leather wings with their translucent inner folds...

...To a pair of fiery golden eyes with slitted irises in a tapered face framed with finned ears and horns that gleamed in the sun. The elongated mouth opened to reveal a row of white, gleaming teeth.

Dragon, Zuko tried to say, but his voice would not come. Slowly he backed away, not daring to look away from its eyes. It didn't make sense, his mind screamed, running frantic circles around his head. There were no dragons anymore. He'd gone crazy, just like Azula always said he would. If he was crazy, couldn't his hallucinations look a little less vivid, and less like they were going to dismember him in two seconds?

He stepped on a loose stone and went sprawling to the ground, but did not feel it. The dragon's coils were moving slowly about him, circling all around and trapping him. Caught in its winged shadow, Zuko raised a futile hand in defense as its head drew closer to look directly into his eyes, mouth opening to consume him with teeth or with fire.

And as he looked into those eyes and his own impending death, Zuko felt a shimmer in the world around him. Something shifted deep in the firmament of being, the boundary between the real and the imagined not nearly as solid as he had assumed. Fire crackled in the dragon's maw and the dry hot smell stung his nose, and Zuko lost some foothold on the here and now even as he struggled to hold on. In an instant he slipped through the cracks and lost himself.

"My Lord!" Frantic footsteps sounded across the audience chamber. "The convoy on its way to the Earth Kingdom was attacked by dragons, the ships and their cargo burned and sunk!"

_arrogance_

_The disappearance of the Avatar changes _nothing, _Sozin lord of fire._ The proud creature looked down at him, looked down on him and his life's dream. _The dragons will not stand by while you plunge the world into war._

_insolence_

"I-it was dragons, your Majesty." The general, his armor burnt and ragged, hung his head. "They intervened as we closed in on the Air Nomads."

_betrayal_

"The people are afraid. For-forgive me, sire." The counselor lowered his eyes. "But- if the dragons are against them, they say, how can they fight? How will they win?"

_treachery_

"If these base and violent beasts spoil for a fight, they shall have more than they ever wanted."

_no longer young no longer vigorous and light on my feet a struggle to get out of bed every morning and one day I will not rise_

"Any who slays a dragon will be richly rewarded and given the honor of Dragon. For these are the Dragons I need, loyal men and not treacherous animals."

_needed you by my side my friend and you were not there no, no friend he was the traitor not I NOT I_

"Thus is the will of your Firelord. May all who are loyal to this Nation obey."

_my life's dream life's work and time is running out I had no choice only did what I had to_

Zuko groped blindly in the overwhelming rush of images and thoughts and clawed back to reality, gasping for breath as though raising his head above tumultuous waters.

Or back to what only felt like reality, for the dragon's coils were closing around him, pinning his arms to his sides. Fire gathered in the dragon's mouth, the heat so scorching he thought he would be burnt by the heat alone.

But that seemed a distant threat compared to the feeling of the world sliding underneath him again, threatening to plunge him back into unreality.

"Please, no more," he said, very quiet. "Please."

And reality, or dream, or madness tilted sideways and dropped him once more into the pit of nothingness that seethed for him.

"Grieve not," she murmured to her weeping people, her tunic of cured hide soaked in her own blood. "I will return to defend you, Lords of Dragonkind permitting." Her hair was coming undone from the coils on either side of her face, the strands falling across pale skin like cracks on marble. "Do not fear, I shall never leave you."

The white dragon roared as another barbed harpoon sank into her flesh, leaving her writhing in a web of ropes like some grotesque puppet. The blood gushed from her wounds as she struggled, and fire from her maw like a cry of anguish.

The rotund old man looked like someone who knew how to enjoy life. The love of a good meal was evident in the belly that pushed out the midriff of his knee-length tunic, and the love of good company in his round, cheerful face under the old-fashioned black cloth cap. He was not cheerful now, bound in chains and looking up at a stolen throne. "No, my death will be neither swift nor easy," he said to his captor. "But you may not have seen the last of me. You may have broken faith with the land. I will not."

Cheers and whoops arose from the hunters as a flaming arrow found its mark in the black dragon's eye, maddening it with pain. Its thrashing body swept three of the hunters off the cliffside into the ocean far below, but there were many more. Arrows, fire, and spears flew at the dragon from all directions until his movements grew weaker and weaker.

"I wanted to do so much more," said the young boy on his deathbed. "I should be out there fighting alongside my brother." He looked out the window at the world that had been denied him all his frail life. "Maybe I will," he said, his breathing labored. "Maybe I can return to defend our Nation."

Chains, fired with devastating force, went spinning across the air to wrap themselves around the green dragon, trapping his wings and crushing the wingbones. The young dragon gave a hissing scream that was almost human as he fell, the ground coming up to meet him with implacable speed.

And more, a warrior who wore feathers in his many braids, a matronly and smiling fishwife, a kind-eyed priest of fire, a gracious lady in her sweeping ruby robes, a disgraced soldier who took his own life, a merchant, a murdered prince.

I will return...

The dragons fell one by one. They found them, the blade and the fire, arrow and catapult and spear. Nets and chains constrained their power, poison and acid sapped their strength.

...to these oceans and mountains that I love...

The great creatures tried to defend themselves but could not bear to slay their own hunters, and refused to unleash their full strength to kill those who would kill them.

...to protect this land and defend it...

He reached for them, tried to grasp a shoulder, a sleeve, a hand to keep them with him. But one by one they turned away and their spirits of flame, their boundless devotion, burned to smoke and dispersed in the wind.

...forever.

Zuko gasped as his eyes flew open. He struggled in the dragon's coils, turning his face away from the heat of the gaping maw. He squeezed his eyes shut against the unbearable brightness as the fire roared out.

Then it took him in a searing flood, and he screamed.

* * *

"Zuko!"

Sanwai froze at the entrance to the clearing, unable to look away. The young prince lay on his back in the grass, his body locked and twitching as though he were having a seizure. But it was the face that stopped Sanwai in his tracks and made him gape in a split second of horrified fascination.

Turned away from Sanwai, the white sunlight falling directly on it, Zuko's face seemed to be on fire.

Sanwai gave a hoarse shout and ran to catch up the boy into a sitting position. He blinked as the white fire dispersed into swirling colors of purple, green, and gold and disappeared. Had it been a trick of the light? The boy's face was unmarked, his eyes closed and his cheeks wet with what looked like tears.

"Zuko." Sanwai shook him. "Prince Zuko!" The prince did not respond, frowning and struggling as though in a nightmare.

"Sanwai?"

He turned to see Elder Lao stagger into the clearing, his breaths wheezing in and out.

"He won't wake, Elder," Sanwai whispered. "What happened to him?"

Lao Tai did not answer. His eye, the milky white one, fell on the vague colors and forms that flitted in the sunlight.

"I see... so he asked the question, did he? So close a thing, though. It's only his mother's blood that allowed him to bear it."

"Stop your yammering, old man!" Sanwai shouted, almost standing before he remembered he held Zuko in his arms. "What did they _do?_"

"A prince of the blood indeed." Lao Tai gathered his hands together and bowed to the unconscious prince.

Sanwai made to speak again, but the Elder held up a bony finger. "Shhh."

His eyes fixed on some point midair, Lao Tai spoke flowing words that made no sense to Sanwai. When he finished speaking the Elder bowed to the four directions in turn and clapped his hands twice, sharply. The colors that tinted the sun faded, though Sanwai could not say for certain, before or after, that his eyes had not simply been dazzled by the sun.

The Elder came to sit next to them, almost collapsing into the grass. "How is he?"

"I don't know." Sanwai jostled the boy, patting him on a wet cheek. "Prince Zuko?"

The boy gave a sleepy moan and opened his eyes halfway. Then his eyes widened in fright and he pushed away, backing away from the two men.

"Lad?"

Zuko shook his head, a hand pressed to his brow. "Sanwai? Where's..." He looked around, shoulders tense and hunched as though fearing what he would see.

"Did you see something?" Lao Tai's voice was gentle. The question seemed to hang in the air as Zuko hesitated. At last he shook his head from side to side, his eyes so haunted that Sanwai knew he was lying.

"No, I-I think it was sunstroke." The prince did not meet their eyes. He wiped the tears from his face, looking angry. "What are you doing here?"

"A letter came for you." Elder Lao gestured to the path to the clearing, and Sanwai noticed the red-bound roll of papers he must have dropped. Sanwai hurried to retrieve it, and Zuko stood to receive it. He was a wobbly on his feet, but Sanwai knew better than to try and help. Boy seemed fine now, no point to babying him and hurting his pride worse than it already was.

The prince looked for a moment at the name of the sender, then raised his eyes to Sanwai's. "Goodman Sanwai."

"Highness?"

"This letter will tell me what is right and honorable for me to do today, as a prince of the Fire Nation." Zuko looked down at the unopened letter, his face young and grave. "It tells me whether I am allowed to act for you and your village."

"You should open it, then." Sanwai's mouth went dry. So this was it. They would know for certain whether the Prince would stand with them.

He watched, perplexed, as flames licked along the rolled-up sheets. Another trick of the light- no, Zuko was looking intently at the letter as it crinkled and blackened, then fell away in burning pieces.

Sanwai cried out and reached to snatch the letter away, but stopped: Zuko met his eye, his eyes the gold of fire. _Dragon, _Sanwai's mind said in its confusion, casting back to a time long ago when a dragon had taken refuge near Tamalan. _I look into the eyes of a dragon._

"I don't want to know what it says." Zuko released another burst of flame to burn away the remaining scraps of paper and red ribbon. "There are laws older than any man, even one as wise as Master Lu, can write and study." He looked to the Elder and Sanwai in turn, and smiled without doubt or fear. "I will not abandon you."

"My Prince." Sanwai knelt in the grass, and heard Lao Tai's old bones creak as the old man did the same. He had so much to say, but there was a lump in his throat and he could not find the words. Instead he touched his forehead to the grass and the dirt. "My Prince." Somehow he knew Zuko heard them, all the words that filled his heart.


	11. Chapter 5: The Reservoir 3 of 3

"Are you trying to waste my time, Lieutenant?" Azula knitted her brows at the map spread across the desk in the meeting chamber, the light of the lamp flickering in her eyes. "You want me to mobilize my connections to advocate taking the ports of Huakang and Beiyang—and for what?"

"They are crucial supply and refueling ports for a siege on the North Pole, your Highness."

"The North Pole." Azula turned a hard gaze on Zhao. "Why?"

"It will turn the tide of this war-"

"The Northern Water Tribe does not concern us." Azula cut him off. "A few ships may ally with the Earth Kingdom to harass our ships, but for the most part they stay shut away far in the North." She paced a few steps away, then turned to face the lieutenant. "The only sure way to turn them against us is a direct assault.

"So we come to my first question, Lieutenant." Her narrowed eyes glittered. "Are you trying to waste my time?"

"They will not stand against us, Princess." Zhao's voice rang with confidence. "Not after I destroy the source of their waterbending."

Azula paused, then allowed herself a tiny smile. "Go on."

"The Spirits of the Moon and the Ocean are hidden away deep inside the Northern Water Tribe's fortress," said Zhao. "The invasion will only be a distraction while I infiltrate the city and destroy the Moon Spirit, the source of all waterbending powers. After that, the Northern Water Tribe cannot resist us." He smirked. "This will destroy what remains of the Southern Water Tribe as well. The Earth Kingdom will stand alone, and we can concentrate fully on the assault on Ba Sing Se."

"Spirits." Azula scoffed. "You a mystic, of all people. Even if you're right," she went on, "how would you even kill a spirit?" She came to lean over the table, more eager than she might have liked to let on.

Zhao saw this, and inclined his head to hide a smile. He took a red troop movement marker from the map and held it away from the table. "The spirits reside in a different world from our own-"

"Yes, the Spirit World." Azula sounded bored.

"Yes." Zhao waved his other hand over the table, hitting nothing. "Therefore a spirit is all but invincible to threats from our world so long as it stays in its own world." Azula nodded, her eyes focused with predatory interest on the marker Zhao held.

"But sometimes, a spirit sacrifices its invulnerability to remain in the physical world and guide it directly." Zhao placed the marker back on the table. "It takes a physical form in order to do so, and becomes vulnerable to physical threats."

"Meaning they can be killed, for instance, with fire?" Azula's eyes gave off a gleeful glow.

"Just so." Zhao sent a small puff of flame at the marker, knocking it down with a metallic clatter and singeing the polished surface. "It worked with the dragons, although they were human spirits according to the texts. They say the Avatar Spirit is the same way."

"The Avatar has died and been reborn over and over," Azula raised an eyebrow. "Roku died over a hundred years ago, but the Avatar Spirit persists—or so the Fire Sages say."

"The Avatar is in two parts, the immortal Avatar Spirit and the human spirit." Zhao took another marker, this one blue, and held this one hovering a few inches from the table's edge. He set the fallen red marker upright on the table, then knocked it down with a flick of his finger. "The human part is mortal, and its death does not touch the Avatar Spirit." He knocked the red marker down again.

"The full strength of the Spirit only emerges," he continued, "when it reveals itself completely in the human vessel without working through the human spirit."

"I've no patience for riddles, Lieutenant." Azula bared small, even teeth. "What does it take to kill the Avatar Spirit?"

"When the Avatar calls upon it, your Highness." Zhao placed the blue marker on the table with a decisive click, its shadow falling over the red marker. "At those moments, the Avatar Spirit is fully physical in this world."

"So you mean to tell me, when the Avatar is killed while the Avatar Spirit fills him..." Azula pointed two fingers and released a jet of flame, knocking down both the red and blue markers and lighting the room with cold brilliance. "No more Avatar." The flame faded, and the partly melted markers rolled back and forth on a black burned spot over Ba Sing Se. "Forever."

"Precisely, Princess." Zhao smiled broadly.

"That's good to know." She sighed in something like contentment. They were both quiet for a few moments, each deep in thought.

"Princess." A servant appeared at the doorway and approached when she waved a hand in permission. He came to speak low in Azula's ear, and a smirk spread across her face.

"He _did,_ did he?" She turned to Zhao. "I must speak to my father—and my uncle. I will give..." she chose her words, "positive consideration to your suggestion, Lieutenant."

"Your Highness." Zhao bowed as she walked out of the room. He turned back to the map, the lamps casting golden light and deep shadows across his wide-eyed smile.

* * *

"I am telling you, Ozai, you are overreacting!" Iroh looked up at the Firelord's face, a shadow behind the wall of flames that rose around his sitting form. "He is a boy, and boys will be impulsive."

"I agree completely, Uncle." Azula stepped into the audience chamber and walked down the room toward the Firelord and Iroh. "Zuko is a boy who can't stay in a country lord's castle for even one night like he was told."

"This is a private conversation, Azula." Iroh frowned. How did Azula find out about this meeting so soon? He was reminded once again that she was no ordinary child. He looked to Ozai: Would the Firelord tolerate his daughter's intrusion?

"Father." Azula went to one knee before Ozai. "I will leave if I intrude upon you. It is only that," she looked sidelong at Iroh, a smirk on her lips, "Zuko is my brother and I fear for him."

She kept her head respectfully bowed while the Firelord paused. In the silence his eyes met Iroh's across the flames, then Ozai lifted a hand from his knee and dropped it. "You may stay, daughter."

Azula's eyes sparked with triumph as she stood and bowed to her father. Iroh swallowed, knowing this was a demonstration meant for him. It was the Firelord, his brother was reminding him, that held the reins in this chamber, not the elder prince. If the Firelord willed that a girl not yet twelve took part in a conversation with adults, that was the way it would be.

"Azula is right in one aspect, brother," Iroh said quietly. "Zuko is a boy, and alone. Let me go join him, and I will curb the worst of his exuberance. You were a young prince yourself—you cannot expect him to listen to attendants and retainers once he is set on something."

"I know my brother is much braver than I am," Azula said in an insincere singsong. "_I_ wouldn't dare oppose a noble's rights to order his own land. That kind of precedent could cost the Firelord the support of the landed nobility when we need them most."

Iroh swallowed, watching the flames surge higher around Ozai. _I am losing him._ Perhaps he never had him, this much younger half-brother he never knew from up close.

"It is a mistake to rush Zuko home now," he pushed on, willing Ozai to understand. "The commons will think you do not care about their rights. Zuko is well-positioned to win their support, brother. Let him solve the Tamalan issue and be a hero to the common folk. The people will love you the better for him."

Ozai tensed as though struck. Iroh frowned, but Azula's clear voice broke the silence first.

"In other words, either the nobility or the commoners will be angry no matter what the outcome. And whoever loses will blame the Firelord instead of each other, all because Zuko got involved." She shook her head. "Gentle Zuzu, so full of... good intentions."

"The Fire Nation, most unfortunately, does not run on good intentions alone." Ozai, once again relaxed, waved a languorous hand. "It is time Prince Zuko returned to his place in the palace—immediately."

Iroh set his mouth to keep himself silent, for the Firelord had made his decision. Many would call it the prudent one. Iroh himself might disagree with the illegal destruction of a village, but Tamalan's was not the first such story and it would not be the last. Where had the famed General Iroh been for all the other little towns whose names he did not know?

_You are being a sentimental old man, _Iroh told himself. _Your being there once, decades ago, does not warrant Tamalan special dispensation._

Iroh ignored Azula's malicious smile as he took his leave of the Firelord. He was not thinking of Tamalan, but that tension in Ozai at the mention of Zuko being a hero to the common folk.

At the entrance Iroh looked over his shoulder at Ozai on his throne, and the question came like a cold touch on his chest:

_What are you afraid of, brother?_

* * *

Notes: The vision Zuko sees here doesn't exactly match what he tells Aang in _The Firebending Masters, _but I can justify that. Zuko was just getting to know Aang at the time, and laying all the internal dissensions of the Fire Nation and metaphysical implications on the kid would have been a bit heavy.

I also changed Azula and Zhao's conversation to add what seems like a blatant inaccuracy (the Northern Water Tribe helping the Earth Kingdom), but if you read Kimberly T.'s brilliant one-shot _Operational Risk Management _it will all be clear. If you didn't read it, why not?

* * *

_Next: Zuko has a rather polite talk with Captain Kang, and then everyone gets violent._


	12. Chapter 6: Sunset and Sunrise 1 of 3

Note: The family name I've given Mai is from _Three Years at Sea_ by my lovely reviewer amanda91. I don't use her idea that Mai and Zuko were engaged as children, but I like the name for Mai. If you haven't read Amanda's stories yet, GO READ THEM. That is all.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 6: Sunset and Sunrise**

* * *

For man by nature chooseth the lesser evil, which is danger of death in resisting; rather than the greater, which is certain and present death in not resisting.  
- Thomas Hobbes, _Leviathan_

* * *

The soldiers came late in the afternoon as the sun slipped westward. They came up the slope of the volcano on foot or on riding beasts, scanning their surroundings for threats and grim with purpose.

About a dozen men came out from the village to meet them. At their head was a teenage boy in a black tunic that came almost to his knees over white shirt and trousers. His hair, swept back in a warrior's ponytail, fluttered in the warm breeze as he walked out from the valley and its temporary fortifications to. Two men followed him on either side, one a swordsman in black and the other a sturdy peasant boy.

"Your Highness." The young man at the head of the soldiers, armored over his red and brown clothing and his reddish hair tied back, dismounted from his rhino to stride up to the boy. "I am overjoyed to see you safe." He bowed to his prince.

"Captain Kang." Zuko bowed back. "Thank you, but I was never in any danger."

"I am glad to hear it," Kang said mechanically. "Now please, come with us. A coterie of guards will protect you, and we can leave as soon as I have taken care of my lord's business."

"Is that the business of opening the dam, Captain?" Zuko looked over his shoulder at the valley of Tamalan, where the reservoir rose above the shadowed houses and fields.

"So these peasants have been pestering you about that." At Kang's words Khoujin, behind Zuko, took a step forward, but stopped at a look from Shun. "It is a small matter, beneath your notice." Kang motioned to guards who stood behind him. "Take the prince into your protection."

"I'm sorry." Zuko drew one foot back and lowered his stance, raising his hands to waist level with palms to the sky. "I'm afraid I must decline."

The guards hesitated, and Kang's face hardened. "What are you doing, Prince Zuko?"

"I'm defending my people." Zuko brought one hand to face level, not quite threatening yet. "I won't let you open the dam."

"Ah well, this is interesting." Kang grinned. "You don't have the right to stop us, Prince. These lands belong to my lord uncle."

"And the dam they built with their own hands belongs to the village of Tamalan."

"Do you realize what you're doing?" Kang asked, serious now. "We may be a rural province, but it won't stop here. Not when you act as the Firelord's son."

"So maybe you should leave now. Tell Lord Zhen that I stopped you, and you couldn't do anything about it."

Kang laughed. "It's tempting. I've little interest in the matter myself—but I also have no interest in looking incompetent in my lord's eyes."

"I guess there's only one way to resolve this, then." Zuko brought his arms down, elbows facing out and palms earthward.

"Oh, really." Kang's face twitched with the effort to keep his face straight. "Come now, Prince Zuko. This is not a boys' adventure story."

"Accept my challenge or forfeit your honor." Zuko narrowed his eyes. "If I win, withdraw your men immediately and swear never to act against Tamalan in this matter."

"And when—excuse me, if—I win?" Kang took a step forward, looking down at the prince. "Will your mighty peasant army stand down?"

"I can't order them not to resist a threat to their livelihoods." Zuko looked up at him without giving ground. "But I give you my word that I will personally do nothing to stop you."

"It's hardly a fair deal, but I'll take it. Humility is a good lesson for a prince."

Zuko set his jaw. "At sunset, then?" He glanced up at the westering sun that cast the volcano's shadow over them all.

"In about an hour. Let us both rest until then." They exchanged bows again.

Just as Kang was about to turn away, Zuko called to him. "Captain Kang?"

"Your Highness?"

"I, uh..." Zuko scratched his head. "I will make full reparations for your gate, And your giant eel hound."

"My uncle will appreciate that." Kang then waved a hand in dismissal. "But forget about the eel hound. It wasn't any use to me anyway. You freed up a grainhouse for us, as far as I care."

"Then why didn't you let her go?" Zuko's voice grew heated. "She only wanted to go home."

"Prince Zuko, I had no idea what it wanted to do." Kang spread his hands. "For all I knew it wanted to tear us all apart the moment it was free. I had to bend my way out of more than one close call with that thing; I just didn't have the heart to kill it."

Zuko's face relaxed a little. "Perhaps you should talk to your tenants more often."

Kang looked beyond Zuko to the peasants at the barricade, and grimaced. "With all due respect, sir: No."

"Your loss." Zuko shrugged.

"And I should thank you for telling off my uncle." Kang shook his head. "He's been irritating everyone for years, playing with his food like that."

Zuko snorted with laughter. "You are very welcome."

After that they had very little to say to each other: They would be adversaries the next they met. Zuko walked back to the villagers gathered at the mouth of the valley. Kang watched him go for a moment, then returned to his own men.

* * *

"Any advice?" Zuko knelt before Elder Lao in the red light of sunset, facing the darkening form of the volcano. The evening breeze cooled his bare torso, and the grass scratched the soles of his feet.

"You're a well-trained lad, and talented." The old man stood leaning against his cane, rubbing his hairless chin in thought. "What you lack is experience, which can't be helped. Whatever advantage you see in this battle, don't hesitate to use it."

"I wouldn't cheat!" People turned to look at him, and Zuko covered his mouth.

"I never said you would, Prince Zuko. Recall the rules of an Agni Kai."

"One on one, bare-handed except for bending." Zuko said the words by rote. "No help from anybody else, no attacking anyone but the opponent. Do not attack an opponent who has surrendered, and the fight ends if at least one combatant surrenders or cannot fight."

"So I advise you not to break any of those rules and your honor is in the clear."

"Thanks a lot." Zuko stood, his stomach dragging him down for all it felt so hollow. He wondered again what he had gotten himself into. But if he had any chance to avoid pitting his "peasant army" as Kang called it against Lord Zhen's trained soldiers, it was a chance worth taking.

Besides, even if he lost, Captain Kang probably wouldn't kill or disfigure his sovereign prince. Right?

He turned and went into firebending stance, trying to calm his breathing. Across the fallow field Kang did the same, a little smile playing about his lips. Even with the distance between them Zuko was reminded how much taller the other man was, how much more muscled from age and training.

Zuko felt like a small child all of a sudden, and wondered how in the world he could beat a full-grown man and trained firebending warrior, no common soldier nor an undertrained peasant boy.

He didn't realize he was hyperventilating until Elder Lao murmured, "Breathe." Then he sucked in a huge breath that left him dizzy.

The gong rang out in the red sunset, signaling the start of the fight. Without thinking Zuko started moving as he had been trained, circling his opponent. Kang watched his roundabout approach, and then circled his arms up in a flurry of movement. Zuko froze for a second, and almost cried out when Kang gave a shout and released a burst of fire.

For what seemed like minutes Zuko stared at the flames leaping across the air, and purest reflex made him duck out of the way and go rolling across dry earth and dead grain. He could still feel the searing heat that had passed so close to his shoulder.

He came upright with one knee bent, and was just about to rise when Kang ended his running leap—so terrifyingly close now—and kicked, fire erupting from the movement. Zuko crossed his arms before his face to fend it off, but was knocked back from the force of it.

He went flying across the dry field and hit his head on the ground, the world shaking at a crazy angle and threatening to darken on him. His face and chest throbbed with the heat, and he couldn't stop coughing from the smoke.

"Stand up, Zuko!" That was Khoujin's voice, frantic. "Give him the one-two!" The men and women of the village were shouting encouragements and contradictory suggestions. These people were counting on him to champion them as a prince should. His father would be counting on him to defend his subjects.

And his mother-

_That's who you are, Zuko._

He snapped his eyes open and jumped to his feet. Kang was practically on top of him, bearing down with his fist wreathed in flames. Zuko jumped backward so Kang struck the dry straw, setting it alight.

_Someone who keeps fighting, even though it's hard._

Zuko pointed his palm at his opponent, calling up fire, but Kang swept flames along the ground at his feet before Zuko could finish the stance. He had to jump back in a hurry, interrupting his attack. Sparks licked along the straw on the ground and came alive into flames.

Zuko realized now that the field around them was catching fire. He coughed from the smoke, realizing he would tire sooner than Kang who was older and bigger. He had to end this quickly.

And now Kang was up close, attacking with chops, kicks, and bursts of flame that Zuko blocked every time, but just barely. Perspiration dripped from his face and down his torso, and every other step sent a sting of heat through the soles of his feet. It was stupid that he had to be afraid of fire, his own element.

His own element.

Just a moment of distraction cost Zuko his balance as Kang threw out a foot, knocking the legs out from under him. Zuko went tumbling, the ground skinning and burning his hands as he thrust them out to catch himself. When he looked up a grin of triumph lit up Kang's face as the man raised a flaming hand.

_No matter how things may seem to change..._

He had no time to think about it, had not the space to let his doubts kill the attempt. Without time to get up or get into the proper stance Zuko swept his legs away from the line of the attack, his hands still on the ground, then just kept going, spinning himself around on his hands. He called up fire as he went, not only within himself but from without, his element that raged around him.

_Never forget who you are._

The fire answered his call and rose up along the path of his movement, flaring out in a circle of force that caught and knocked Kang away.

Zuko spun to his back and leapt to his feet in one fluid motion, not caring about the sparks and cinders that clung to his bare skin. He remembered to breathe, reaching out to the fire around him, the smoke and the searing heat, expanding his inner flame outward—and the outer flame, inward.

The flames sank low as Zuko breathed out, letting the calm darkness rush in. In the starlight and flickering flames he saw Kang struggle to his feet, coughing. Zuko had no intention of giving him time to recover.

He breathed in; the fire leapt up at the dark sky. And just like the time he had escaped on the giant eel hound, the heat and the flames seemed a beautiful and living thing to him—not a burst of anger, but the song of the life in his veins.

He let out a shout and raised an arm, and the fire flowed and gathered to tower behind him in a wave. The fiery crest followed in his wake as Zuko ran to his opponent, who raised an arm to counter.

Zuko brought down his arm with another cry, and the inferno came roaring down around them, the flames pelting the ground like rain. Kang's hurried counterfire, feeble in comparison, kept him from getting burned but went out like a candle flame in the far greater gust. He was pushed to the ground, unable to bear the pressure.

Kang looked up, breathing hard, to find Zuko's fist in his face.

"Yield!" His traitor voice chose this moment to crack.

"And if I don't?" Kang's breathing was labored, but his eyes met Zuko's without wavering.

"I-" Zuko hesitated. This was supposed to be the part where his opponent surrendered. Zuko could melt the man's face off, or at least give him a scar that would mark his defeat as long as he lived. At the thought his fist felt like it was made of rock, and his arm shook with the effort of holding it up.

Kang struck Zuko's hand away. "I do _not_ surrender."

"But... you promised!"

"I didn't lose to you." Kang sprang to his feet before Zuko could stop him. "You cheated."

Before Zuko could answer a wheezy voice came from behind him: "Recall the rules of the Agni Kai, Captain Kang."

Zuko turned to see the flames split apart and dim. Elder Lao Tai walked out of the parting fire, a swish of his cane further calming it.

"He got help!" Kang was wide-eyed in his rage. "No weapons-"

"-save firebending." The Elder took another step forward. "What other weapon did Prince Zuko use?"

"There was to be no help from any-"

"-one else," Lao Tai came a stop before Kang. "Who helped the boy? You, perhaps, by setting fire to a dry field?"

"He-" Kang pointed at Zuko.

"He stopped when he had incapacitated you," said Lao Tai, "and attacked no one else. So I fail to see how Prince Zuko 'cheated,' Captain."

"_You_ chose this dueling ground." Kang's eyes grew cold. "You set me up for humiliation and defeat."

"You could have refused my choice." Lao Tai's voice grew, if anything, gentler. "And I see no humiliation in defeat—only in dishonor, which only you can bring on yourself."

"Speak you of dishonor? This- this paltry _boy_ is a dishonor, and a traitor to his Nation!" Kang jabbed his finger toward Zuko. The word 'traitor' hit Zuko like a fist, and a painful pounding started up in his chest.

"You think to deny us sovereignty over our own estate," Kang's eyes blazed with reflected firelight. "You kick the fire, and imagine it will not spread to the house?"

"What- I'm not-" Zuko clenched his fists and took a step toward the man, wanting nothing more than to make Kang eat those words.

Kang was now shouting over his shoulder at his men: "Rhinos in front, footmen after! Bring the catapult in the rear." He turned to face the darkened valley and the dam rising above it. "We will break down that dam, and put the village to the torch if these insolent peasants resist."

"No!" Zuko held out a hand but Kang was leaping back, ready to defend himself. The rhinos stepped over the dying flames to loom up behind him, the shadowy forms of armored soldiers on their backs.

"Let it go. Let him go." Lao Tai's brittle hand touched Zuko's shoulder. "We must retreat to defend the village."

"It can't be like this," Zuko almost pleaded as he ran back to the barricades, looking back over his shoulder at the approaching rhinos and the heavy form of the catapult trundling behind. "I beat him. I didn't cheat- I'm not a _traitor!_"

"Will you face what is, or stay in the grip of what should be?" Lao Tai raised his reedy voice, following on Khoujin's arm. "You beat him but his honor did not stay him, nor could you hold him. Accept it!"

"I'm not a traitor." Zuko crossed the plank over the trench they had dug at the mouth of the valley. They reached the stone barricade beyond, and Zuko stepped aside for Lao Tai to pass through. Khoujin handed the Elder over to his father's care and stood next to Zuko, while Shun took up the other side.

"We'll beat him." Khoujin smiled with an effort. "The coward won't take our water away, not with a prince on our side."

_You already had a prince on your side._ Zuko looked down at his hands that could not hold his own victory, all because he hesitated to harm a fallen opponent.

"His own dishonor may work against him, my Prince." Shun's dao blade came free of the scabbard with a _shing_, and his eyes trained on the approaching opponents. "His blade will not ring true if his feet are on- if he loses faith in himself."

Firebenders actually scorned metal weapons, preferring to rely on their element, but Zuko appreciated the sentiment. "Remember how we practiced these two days, Shun."

"When the going gets hot, the hot gets going." Khoujin still seemed pleased with himself for coming up with that.

"I have fought alongside benders before." Shun separated the two blades, grasping one in each hand. As the tread of the rhinos shook the ground he lowered his stance, ready to spring. Zuko and Khoujin fell back to deflect incoming fire and throw their own, while villagers with spears waited in two ranks on either side to repel the first line of attack.

The village men cleared away the planks over the trench that Zuko and the others had crossed over, then doubled back to the ranks. And then there was nothing to do but wait as the assault force came up the grassy slope to the mouth of the valley.

"And remember, Shun." Zuko found himself growing uneasy at the intent look in Shun's profile. "I want to end this without bloodshed."

"Do you command me not to kill?" Shun did not look at him.

"Well- I don't want you to come to harm, but this is just a provincial dispute between a lord and his tenants, and people getting killed will complicate-"

"Do you command me, your Highness?" Shun turned his gaze to Zuko. This was no longer the watchful presence Zuko had grown used to: This was the Shun who had followed him only a few hours behind a giant eel hound, watched and scouted for Zhen's men on little to no sleep, organized the defenses, and now stood ready with blades drawn for battle. Zuko wondered if he weren't seeing the man's true face for the first time.

Zuko nodded once. "I command you. Kill no one unless absolutely necessary for your safety."

"Very well." Shun inclined his head, and his gaze went to the approaching threat. "I will not kill this night."

Zuko thought that wasn't exactly what he had ordered. Before he could get into it, however, the rhinos were coming up to the trench and there was no more time for talk.


	13. Chapter 6: Sunset and Sunrise 2 of 3

The fire started flying as soon as the firebenders were in range. Zuko dispelled the flames in midair, as did Khoujin, though not always quickly enough. At times the sparks landed on Khoujin's shirt, causing small flames that he put out by slapping or bending while growling words that Zuko filed away for possible future use.

The five battle-rhinos of the assault force halted when they came to the edge of the trench, the village's first line of defense. At four feet wide it was too much for the laden beasts to jump; at three deep, too perilous for them to fall into, especially with the sharpened spikes that jutted up from the bottom. Shun and some of the men had wanted the trench to be disguised with burlap and dirt, but Zuko and Lao Tai had put their respective feet down; Zuko wanted a deterrent, not a death trap, and Lao Tai did not trust the villagers not to blunder in themselves. The temporary fence they had put around the trench had been taken down only when the invaders were in sight.

In between dispelling incoming fire Zuko watched Captain Kang, wondering how he would get around this. The trench covered the entire mouth of the valley, and the assault force would have to go around if they wanted to keep the rhinos. Climbing the rocky slopes that rose on either side of the valley had its own dangers, and the path from there to the valley floor was steep.

Then Zuko saw footmen dart forward under cover of the fire that their allies flung across the trench. He grit his teeth at the sight of the metal-enforced planks they carried. Kang had come prepared for this scenario. The villagers could try to push the planks off on their side, but with the bolts of flame deterring them... Zuko tried to send fire of his own at the footmen who carried the portable bridge, but even a moment spent away from blocking enemy fire left him pelted with flame and he was forced to leap back. On this side Zuko and Khoujin were the only firebenders, while Zuko counted at least seven firebenders with Captain Kang.

"Fall back!" Zuko shouted at last to the villagers, after Hu Lo's luxuriant beard almost caught fire. "Get back behind the first barricade!" The non-bending villagers couldn't do much standing around except serve as targets, and he could see how Khoujin tired from the need to defend them. Not Zuko himself, of course: He was just panting because... because it got his breath circulating really fast, for better firebending. Of course.

The villagers scrambled to put the first wall between themselves and the flying fire, Hu Lo still slapping at his beard.

"Think he'll finally trim that thing down to size?" Khoujin raised his voice over the tumult, stretching out his hands to stay an incoming fireball, then parting them to dispel it.

"That's one good thing to come out of tonight." Zuko grinned, then stroked his own hairless chin. Fire flashed toward him, and he raised his arms to scatter it.

Khoujin's smile was sympathetic. "Eh, give it time."

"Firebend at them, both of you at once." Zuko jumped at the low voice in his ear. Agni's foot, Shun needed to stop sneaking up on him like that! He had told the man as much more than once, but Shun always looked at him blankly; to him it was walking, not sneaking.

When he recovered from his startlement, Zuko saw what his bodyguard was saying. While he and Khoujin had been preoccupied with covering the villagers' retreat, Kang's soldiers had come to the edge of the trench and were putting down the rhino-planks. At first glance the metal-edged boards looked far too short to cover the distance, but Zuko knew they were forced shut against metal springs and would fold out once opened.

He looked up at Khoujin, and the older boy nodded back. They had not had much time to train together, but now they had to rely on each other and their training. Somehow Zuko felt he could put his trust in him, this country boy who would fight a prince for the girl he loved.

They turned to face each other, pulling their hands to themselves as they gathered the inner fire. Then they ran together toward the edge of the trench, turning in a full circle once as they widened their stance and their arms. They took the final leap almost to the edge, and flung the fire across the trench with all their might in one synchronized motion.

A column of fire roared over the pit, the flames and fireballs in its way scattered in the onslaught like dust in the wind. A rider was knocked outright off his rhino from the force of it, and Zuko couldn't suppress a grin of glee that it was Kang. Another's clothes caught fire, and he leapt off to roll in the dirt and douse himself. The soldiers carrying the planks had fallen back, and one plank teetered on the edge before it fell in. Wood smashed at the bottom of the trench.

"Whoa." Khoujin stumbled to his knees, breathing hard with a big grin on his face. "I've never bent fire like _that-_"

Footsteps that barely seemed to touch the ground ran up behind them, and the next moment Khoujin had to throw his arms out to keep from crashing to the ground when weight slammed into his back. He straightened on pure reflex, and a shadow with a crescent of steel gleaming on either side launched itself into the air over the trench.

"Hey!" Khoujin complained at the same time Zuko cried, "Shun!"

The swordsman landed on the other side and went tumbling across the ground, the fireballs aimed at him striking the earth and grass in his wake. Spears and swords came for him while he was still on the ground, and he blocked and struck away the attacks with his twin blades. Then he jumped up to standing position, still parrying steel and fire on all sides. Zuko and Khoujin tried to cover Shun but ended up hitting the largest targets—the rhinos—for the most part, causing even more confusion when the beasts tossed their heads and had to be checked by their drivers.

A firebender took aim at Shun, and Zuko hissed in frustration when he realized he couldn't get an angle to intercept the attack. No matter; Shun ducked one firebolt, twisted away from another so it passed inches before his chest, and shouldered a spearman into the path of the third. Zuko winced when the man screamed, but it wasn't fatal from the sound of it. And he couldn't order Shun to avoid causing injury as well as death, not when his bodyguard was risking his life in a fight he joined only on Zuko's order.

Zuko and Khoujin waited and watched for an opening to support Shun, but the action was so fluid, the swordsman so tangled with the enemy that they could not attack and risk accidentally hitting him. They watched in awe as Shun knocked down one of the plank-carriers with a sweep of his leg while each blade kept a different attacker away. One edge of the rhino-plank toppled to the ground, and Shun nudged it with a foot at just at the right moment to send it falling over a soldier's leg. The man clattered to the ground, shrieking in pain with the metal-and-wood contraption on top of him.

"I have a confession to make." Zuko's eyes were on Shun while he watched for an opening. Defense was not a real concern just now; the fire that did come their way was mostly stray flames that they easily avoided.

"What?" Khoujin also kept his eyes on the battle. "Watch out!"

Across the trench Shun retreated to the very edge, the weight of swords and spears on both blades. Khoujin held out a hand, but couldn't bend fire with Shun between him and the enemy. As they watched Shun pushed his assailants all back at once, leaping over a bolt of flame which sailed across the trench to fizzle on the ground at Zuko's feet.

"When I told Kang I wouldn't do anything personally to stop him if I lost the Agni Kai-" as Zuko spoke, Shun struck the dao down in three quick chops at his overbalanced opponents. Zuko tensed, but the blades were undarkened by blood though the soldiers dropped to the ground, "-I meant me personally, not Shun."

"You already gave him the order to fight even if you didn't?" Khoujin watched Shun parry two fireballs and hack a speartip from the haft. He ducked under the stomping feet of a rhino and wove between its legs, the animal grunting in annoyance when the sword-blows aimed at Shun grazed its hide.

"Yeah," Zuko nodded.

Across the trench, Shun burst out from between the rhino's legs to punch a startled firebender in the face, dropping him. His double blades now a single sword, the warrior leapt over a rhino's striking tail to land on its rump, striking away attacks right and left and spinning away from a fireball. "The order was something I already 'did,' not something I 'will do' in the future. "

"Lao Tai put you up to that, didn't he, the old coon-fox."

On the other side of the trench, Shun jumped over flying flames cast by the firebending rider and pounced on him, pressing some spot on his neck that made him go limp. He tossed the man to the ground and flicked the rhino's reins, driving it forward.

"Bless him." Khoujin looked at Zuko. "Bless you."

Shun flattened himself to when fire came at him from behind. The flame struck the rhino's neck instead, earning a low of pain from the beast. Confused, it started a couple of paces forward to cries of alarm, crushing one abandoned plank beneath its paws. Shun slid from the saddle as they flung more fire at him, bringing the flat of his blade down hard at a helmeted head and then delivering a knee-kick to the stomach that doubled the soldier over. He threw the groaning man into his oncoming comrades and ran to the rhino's tail where he struck down and let the metal bite deep.

The beast bellowed and stepped forward away from the pain and off the edge of the trench. Zuko clenched his fists hard, feeling the nails bite, as the animal scrabbled at the edge, its front legs already over and the saddle tilting its weight forward. Soldiers scrambled for the reins, but Shun produced a knife from nowhere and a soldier staggered back, screaming and clutching his hand. Shun got behind the animal's haunches and heaved, tipping the balance.

Zuko closed his eyes and turned his head away as the rhino grunted in panic all the way down, the sound becoming an almost human scream as it hit the stakes below. The lowing told him it was still alive, but the smell of blood turned his stomach. From behind Zuko, the villagers sent up a cheer.

And now the soldiers closed on Shun. None dared to attack outright, but they kept up a steady pressure as they backed him toward the trench, waiting for him to make the first move. Shun backed away step by step toward the edge.

"When the going gets hot..." Khoujin lifted his hand and widened his stance.

Zuko managed a smile and did the same. "...the hot get going."

Without warning Shun dropped to the ground. The boys were ready for him; two plumes of fire flared over the trench and struck Kang's men, sending some flying, others falling to the ground, and still others running into each other or tripping as they scrambled to get away. Shun made easy pickings of them, lashing out with the flat of his blades, kicking at a wrist seemingly in passing yet drawing a scream of pain, swinging the false edge of his blade into a shin and producing a _crack_ and a howl.

Shun ran to the hindquarters of the next rhino in line and swung his sword down with both hands. Zuko flinched as the animal let out a bellow and its leg buckled, blood gushing from the wound when Shun worked his weapon free. When the enemy closed in he ran up the rhino's haunch and launched himself into the air; Zuko and Khoujin bathed the men on the ground with flames.

When Shun dropped to ground, a firebender awaited him with flame-daggers blazing from his fists. Zuko knew him by the red hair flying over his helmet, and by the decisive movements. Shun struck down as he landed, but Kang had melted out of the way and now came at him from the side. Shun separated the blades and attacked with flowing slashes and chops, but Kang lashed out with one dagger, then the other, and kicked a blaze into Shun's face, making him jump back. Zuko and Khoujin flung a series of fireballs at Kang, but he dodged with little effort as he circled the swordsman looking for an opening.

Shun turned with Kang's movements, blades held ready. His heaving breaths were visible even from where Zuko stood. Kang sent a quick burst of fire and Shun blocked it with his blades but stumbled back, catching his balance. It was quiet now after the din of the earlier free-for-all; the two men fought amid the groans of two beasts, one wounded, one dying, and the occasional whoosh of fire.

As he watched Zuko realized with a pang that Shun had tired himself by holding back from fatal blows. He could imagine the blood and bodies if Shun had fought as he must be used to. He didn't regret the order, but- _come on, Shun!_ Zuko sent more suppressing fire Kang's way. _You can beat him! Even I beat him!_

Shun struck in, one blade held low and the other high. Kang jumped and twisted out of the way, chopping a hand into the side of Shun's neck as he passed. The swordsman fell to one knee.

Instead of pressing the advantage, Kang leapt backward clear of his adversary. Zuko tensed and pointed his hand at Kang, and Shun lifted his head-

And paused as if in puzzlement. A blade clanged to the ground and his hand flew to his neck to pluck something, a thin glint of torchlight in his hand. He tried to stand but swayed and fell sideways with a thud, no longer moving.

"Shun!" Zuko ran to the edge of the trench, intending to jump over, before Khoujin caught him. "Shun!"

"Never fear, he only sleeps." Kang smirked across at them. "We have our ways to stop a rampage."

Zuko's heart sank. They had used a dart that dropped rhinos if they got out of control, and a tranquilizer meant for the huge animals could be deadly for a man. "You-"

"Consider it payback for the rhinos," Kang spat. Soldiers moved in to lift the limp Shun and tie his hands behind his back, not sparing a few vengeful kicks. One put away a blowtube as he approached.

Before Zuko could let loose with vituperations that would have made Master Lu blanch, shouts came from behind him. "Wiggle-lizards!"

Zuko spun to look where the villagers pointed, and the sky seemed to spin with him at the sight of two swift forms crawling over the rocky slopes on either side of the valley. The scouting mongoose dragons! As Zuko watched they dropped down to the village, bypassing the trench and the barricades.

"Zuko!" He spun back around at Khoujin's shout to see the remaining plank being placed on the edge of the trench. He sent fire at the men, but had to fall back to avoid the much larger blazes Kang and the remaining firebenders threw his way. Screams rose up from behind him in the village.

Khoujin tried to repel the soldiers away from the plank as Zuko had, and was similarly rebuffed by counterattacks. "Dad," he whispered, looking over his shoulder. "Sa Ye!"

Zuko made a decision, and touched Khoujin's arm. "Let's go. We'll regroup behind the barricades."

Khoujin didn't need telling twice; he turned and ran for the barricade and back to the village. Zuko looked once more at Shun's slumped and trussed form, lying among the ten or so men he had incapacitated, and made a silent vow before he followed after Khoujin. Behind him he heard the wood-and-metal plank expand with heavy clicks, and knew the tread of the three remaining rhinos would not be far behind.

"Whatever else we do tonight," he said as he caught up to Khoujin at the first barricade, "I want Captain Kang as my prisoner."

"To exchange...?" Khoujin glanced over his shoulder, though the rhinos crossing over the trench blocked their view of Shun.

"Yes," said Zuko. "I'm not leaving him behind." Zuko ran on, feet pounding a steady beat on the soil of Tamalan. "I'm not leaving anyone behind."


	14. Chapter 6: Sunset and Sunrise 3 of 3

Things were not going well for the defenders.

They had managed to drag the riders from the mongoose dragons once Zuko and Khoujin joined the fighting in the village, but this meant the first barricade had been undefended while they removed the immediate threat. The rhinos pounded against the stone wall until they bulled right through the rubble, a day's work gone to waste.

Or not entirely to waste, since the destruction of the wall earned the defenders time to run back to the second barricade, which was six carts packed with rock, dirt, and refuse leaning against each other to form an impromptu wall. Of course it eventually burned from the fire being thrown both ways, but the oil-soaked cloths planted in each cart meant that the fire grew out of control, presenting a wall of flame that not even the most intensely fire-trained rhinos, or indeed any human, could pass through. The villagers fell back to the third and last barricade, a wall of earth and dirt thicker and higher than any of the others.

They clustered behind the wall, with ten men and boys standing abreast on the rough ledge they had made halfway up. Lao Tai's great-nephew Lao Wan and Khoujin stood on the ledge, bending fire at the attackers below. The others pushed with poles and spears at the footmen and rhinos, and threw down rocks. Those who waited below passed rocks and poles up to the defenders on the ledge, and relieved the defenders periodically. Khoujin and Zuko were showing signs of fatigue from the intense bending they had done earlier: Lao Tai took one look at Zuko's pale face and forbade him to join the fight again until he had rested.

Before long, however, the riders drove the rhinos through the deterring attacks and the great beasts rammed the wall, tumbling rocks and shaking the very ground. Men fell from the ledge, and were helped to their feet by those below. The ones who clung on flung spears, fire, and rocks as best they could, but their efforts did little more than stay the onslaught for a while. Zuko made as if to climb the bamboo ladder to the ledge, but Lao Tai grabbed his shoulder.

"Retreat," he called to the men around him and above. "All of you!"

The wall gave a great shake again as though to emphasize his point. More men fell off, and the others scrambled down. As the wall disintegrated behind them they left the mouth of the valley and ran into the village proper, the women running ahead. The men turned around to face the crumbling wall and the shadowed forms of the rhinos and men that came through—and the looming catapult that rolled in after, drawn by draft rhinos.

Kang looked from his rhino down at the village men that faced him holding spears and swords and axes, then his eyes flicked to his own side. The prince's swordsman had incapacitated a third of his men, leaving twenty, and the defenders grimly holding their crude weapons numbered in the forties though many were boys and older men.

"Obey the will of your liege and lord, and part." The Captain of the Guard flung the words down at the village. "We will do his bidding and depart peacefully."

The villagers' answer was to tighten their grips on their weapons or to deepen their bending stance.

Kang shrugged. "If you would make it difficult on yourselves..."

He and his remaining five firebenders moved as one, thrusting their arms forward in the same forceful motion. Fire blossomed from their hands and into the air...

Elder Lao Tai shouted: "Now!"

The men ducked, and before Kang's men knew what was happening arcs of water sailed through the air, drenching them and quenching the flames they had begun to bend. The women muffled in dark cloaks at the water pumps, whom Zuko had wryly called "our waterbending women," primed the pumps again. Elder Lao put out stray flames with a wave of his cane, the other three firebending men and two firebending women arrayed around him.

The village men with weapons used that moment of surprise to swarm the weaponless firebenders, crowding around the three rhinos. Almost every time Kang and his benders tried to use their element they found themselves drenched in water from the pumps, left with only smoke on their hands. Khoujin and Lao Wan supported from the back, giving the footmen of Zhen's guard pause by shooting flames at them.

Their position came with its own perils; Khoujin was sprayed with water from behind and almost fell over from the blast. "Hey!" He looked over his shoulder, clutching at his wet hindquarters, to see Sa Ye give him an embarrassed smile and a wave. He turned back to the fray, a silly grin on his own face.

Kang managed to free himself, shooting fire every which way and driving his steed over the villagers. He looked at the confusion of the battle on the ground, his firebenders severely hampered—and wet—and his men outnumbered. His face hardened, and he turned to the catapult.

"Ready your shot," he called.

"What?" Zuko looked up, outraged, as did the villagers.

"You can't do that!" Sanwai had abandoned his spear sometime during the fight, and shook a hapless soldier he had gripped by the collar. "The field sluices ain't closed—you'll flood our crops and the village, and it won't do your lord a lick of good!"

"Then you had better start closing them." Stray burnings cast a flickering glow on Kang's face.

"You son of a scorpion-hound!" Sanwai tossed the soldier aside and rushed at Kang's rhino. Armed soldiers barred his way, and though they found themselves making an unwanted acquaintance with Sanwai's fists, they slowed him down. The women pumped furiously, but Kang placed his rhino between the pumps and the catapult and shot intense heat from his hands to turn the water to vapor.

Meanwhile the main beam of the catapult was winched back against the twisted sinews that strained against it, and soldiers hurried to lift a rock black with tar. The men of the village ran to seize the catapult, but found their way barred by soldiers.

"Prince Zuko, we must-" Lao Tai turned to find the prince gone from his side. "Prince Zuko?"

"There!" One of the women pointed at the reservoir and the shadow speeding up to it, the untucked and unclosed shirt someone had draped over his shoulders flapping as he ran.

"Crazy little..." Khoujin ran after Zuko. "Get back here! You could get hit!"

"What do we do?" Lao Wan turned to his great-uncle.

"My Prince has informed us he wants Captain Kang as a prisoner." Lao Tai's seeing eye swung around to Kang and his men. "We will keep the firebenders busy, nephew, and capture their leader."

The main beam of the catapult lay back against the frame now, the sinews around the axle warring against the winch that pulled the beam down. The beam, caught between these opposing forces, quivered to spring upright yet was forced to lie flat.

The soldiers dropped a rock into the bowl at the end of the axle, which tilted further toward the ground with a sound of protest from the sinews. A waiting firebender lit the coating of tar, bringing the rock to life with eager heat. On his rhino, Kang raised a hand to order the release.

At that moment a clear voice cut across the greying night.

"Captain Kang!" Zuko stood on the dam, his back to the reservoir and facing the attackers. He had lost or taken off his shirt somewhere along his mad run, and stood bare-chested and barefoot just as he had at the Agni Kai. Kang flinched at the sight, fear coming into his face.

"Stand down now." The first light of dawn struck from across the sea and deep into the valley, lighting Zuko standing alone over the village. "Or will you make an attempt on the life of your Prince?" He spread his arms wide, a shirtless child against soldiers and their siege engine.

"Captain." The soldier at the switch of the winch hesitated. Kang paused a long moment, then turned to the soldier.

"Do it." His voice was loud in the silence. "The missile is ready. Fire it now."

"Sir!' The man looked from the burning hunk of rock sending up acrid smoke, to the small form at the other end of the valley. "He's a-"

Whether he meant to say 'child' or 'prince' was never certain, because Kang roared: "I said NOW! I've come too far to stop now, and that boy's no prince of mine!"

"That's treason." The soldier backed away from the lever. "You speak treason!"

Kang jumped from the back of his rhino, clearing his way of enemy and ally alike with bursts of fire. He ran up to the catapult and kicked the release to the winch, letting the main beam fly up with a groan of metal and sinew to release its fiery payload.

"_Zuko!_" Khoujin ran up the rest of the path toward the half-naked form standing in the way of the streak of fire. "Get out of the way!" Khoujin gasped out, stumbling in his haste to reach Zuko.

Zuko hesitated, and then a hard look came into his eyes. "No."

He spread his legs apart and thrust his hands forward and above his head. The red blaze blossomed and grew in the grey dusk while he shifted his weight back. The flaming rock was almost upon him amid screams of alarm when Zuko threw his weight and his arms forward with all his strength.

The rock from the catapult and the fire Zuko threw collided midair with a burst of heat and light, spraying flames in all directions. For an instant two were in equilibrium in the air, seemingly not moving.

And then the force of Zuko's fire pushed the burning rock back, disrupting its path just enough that it dropped from its smooth arc and plummeted down. It landed on the waterway mere feet in front of the reservoir with a _boom,_ leaving a crater and embedding itself in the rocky slope. The ground around it shook while dirt and chips of rock went spraying in the air.

"Zuko!" Khoujin cried out in panic as the reverberations died down. Zuko no longer stood on the dam, only the water shaking and lapping in the aftershock. "Answer me!"

"I'm here!" Zuko burst out of the surface of the reservoir, spitting water. "Action and reaction, Master Lu's told me- so many- times-" His movements sluggish, he swam toward the dam where Khoujin helped him onto the granite platform.

"What's happening?" Zuko gained his footing on the dam, breathing hard and straining his eyes against the darkness shot through with the first brilliance of dawn.

"Most of Zhen's men are down or captured. Dad and the others are almost at the catapult, but Kang is putting up a fight," Khoujin's voice was subdued. "And the catapult..."

"They're winching it up again," Zuko's voice was calm as his eyes adjusted to the light. "I don't know if I can block another." He shivered as the water ran down his bare skin.

"Prince Zuko! Khoujin!" Lao Tai called from the valley floor. "Push the missile on its way, not against it!"

Before they could process what the old man was saying the main beam of the catapult was winched back and the rock lifted into the bowl, even as the last, desperate skirmish of the night raged around its steel frame. Zuko raised his eyebrows when he caught sight of a handful of men in Zhen's uniform fighting alongside the villagers against Kang.

The missile had just been lit when the village men and women broke through the last of Kang's defense and dragged the soldiers from the catapult. In the struggle someone kicked the winch and it released the straining main beam. A shout of alarm went up. Lao Tai kept shouting up at Zuko and Khoujin, but his voice was overwhelmed by the noise.

The boys watched the beam come up and stretched out their hands, their faces set.

Khoujin's face lit with understanding. "The other way! Face the other way!"

"What?" Zuko frowned in confusion, but he was already turning around as Khoujin did. The main beam of the catapult had finished its ascent and flung its one last missile into the air.

"With it, not against it!" Khoujin pushed a palm toward the water and arched his other arm back over his head.

Zuko let out a surprised laugh as he copied Khoujin. "Like waterbend-" his voice was drowned by the _whoosh_ of the oncoming rock.

Villagers and soldiers alike watched the flame-wreathed streak arc toward the dam, the light of its flame weaker in the dawning light. As one, Khoujin and Zuko moved their back arms forward. Curls of orange and red and gold flowed into existence in the air above them, caught the flying missile and pushed it onward, past the dam and into the middle of the reservoir.

A wave rose up out of the water, cresting incandescent white and gold in the dawn. Zuko gave a startled cry as the water hit him in the chest. He fell backward off the dam, rolling over and over down the broken waterway until he lay still in the water. The ankle-deep flow ran twinkling down to the nearest fields and left only a sheen of wetness.

"My Prince!" "Zuko!" "Lad!" Villagers and soldiers alike ran to him. Khoujin reached him first and cradled the boy in his arms to shake him.

"Zuko! Prince Zuko!"

Zuko's eyes crept open and he dragged his gaze to the mouth of the valley, squinting against the brightness.

"What happened?" he murmured sleepily. "Did you stop them?"

"You bet we did." Khoujin's teeth were white against the soot and dirt streaking his face. He looked down at the mouth of the valley where the captured soldiers were tied and under guard—including that of several former comrades.

"Kang?" Zuko stirred, trying to rise.

"Right here, lad." The Captain of the Guard, his hands tied behind his back, was tossed in front of Zuko like a sack of rice. Sanwai stood behind, watching for any sudden movements. And beside him...

"The others are fled, my Prince." Shun bowed to Zuko, moving as though he were underwater. "Their direction indicates they will return to their liege."

"Shun." Zuko broke out in a big grin as he sat up. "Are you all right?"

Shun bowed to Zuko, his words slurring. "Yes, your Highness. Forgive me for causing you fear."

Zuko's grin widened. "So we've won."

"For now, yes." Lao Tai came up, leaning on Sa Ye's arm. "We've won."

Zuko raised his arms and threw his head back to let out a whoop of pure exhilaration into the morning sky. Then he lay back on the wet rocks and started laughing. Bedraggled, half naked, barefoot and covered with small burns and cuts, he laughed the laugh of the unburdened at heart. The cheers arose around him, Kang glared, and the sun unfurled its flaming banners in the east.

* * *

When Prince Iroh received news of the battle at Tamalan he put his teacup down and laughed, a deep, rich sound from his shaking belly that reverberated in his chambers and into the hallways of the Fire Palace. He slapped his knee and leaned over the table, gasping for breath as he muttered about "that crazy boy." And that just set him off again.

"Ah, Ursa," he said between guffaws, "what would you say if you saw your eldest now!" A sad smile spread over his face as he calmed himself.

Afterward, reheating his tea, his face was sober as he looked down at the roiling water. He was deep in thought as the tang of ginseng filled the room.

* * *

Firelord Ozai said nothing when the news came to him in the halting words of a messenger, who flinched when the flames around the throne rose toward the ceiling. He left the audience chamber as soon as was allowed, the sweat running under his collar not all from the heat of the fire.

* * *

Princess Azula shared the news with her companions when it arrived. Ty Lee clasped her hands and giggled, "That's so heroic!" Yao Mai gave a snort of laughter and a tiny smile. "You mean dumb." She put the smile away like a cherished secret.

"I always knew Zuzu was brave," sighed Azula. She smirked to herself from time to time the rest of the afternoon, while servants kept interrupting the young ladies to bring requests from numerous prestigious names in the capital to meet with the Princess. Mai looked on without comment, and a crease of worry formed between her brows.

* * *

_Next: One man is drunk, and another wants two young people to run an errand for him._


	15. Chapter 7: While He Was Sleeping 1 of 2

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 7: While He Was Sleeping**

* * *

Notes: Yes, I've stooped to filching titles from 90's Sandra Bullock romantic comedies. If you can spot the Don Camillo reference in this chapter, clearly you've read too many Giovannino Guareschi stories like I have.

On reviewer Mira's suggestion I've decided to call the external hallway a wraparound porch instead of a patio. From the googled images they're pretty much exactly the same, except that the structure I'm talking about (_maru_ in Korean) is fairly low, about knee high, and has no railing. You can see what I mean in the Book 2 episode Cave of Two Lovers in the scene where Zuko is sitting with Song. Thanks Mira!

* * *

While every human being has a capacity for love, its realization is one of the most difficult achievements.  
- Erich Fromme

* * *

There had been such a fearful din in the night, it had been impossible to fall asleep. All the fighting and shouting and goings on had been enough to rattle his teeth, to the point he had needed a bit of firespirit—just a cup or two, mind—to close his eyes at all.

He woke looking at the bottle, lying on his side on the futon with the bottle and cup on the floor at eye level. He reached for the bottle and grasped it, but when it lifted with depressing ease he remembered finishing the whole thing in the night. He had kept meaning to take just a little more, and then surely a bit more would not hurt, and then... ah, it wasn't the first time. He swore to himself not to do it again, not for the first time.

The sun was high in the sky, fit to drill through his eyes clear to the back of his brain. He noticed a hole in the paper window where the light glared in like an accusing eye. Had he made it when he threw his cup through the window? Yes, last month or the month before that. He should not have done that, no, but couldn't Sa Ye be more careful when she spoke to him? It was the way he was, just his temper, surely a daughter could understand.

Deng Po arose, the world swimming gently around him even as his head split. He needed to eat, and he needed another bottle. Not to drink, of course, but just in case he had trouble sleeping again. It was just one of those things Sa Ye refused to understand when she would hide the money Mi Ye sent, until he grew so angry he—well, it had been wrong of him, but the bruising would fade. It wasn't as though he would scar his daughter, never, not when he had her future to think of.

Speaking of which, he needed to find out what had happened with the Prince, though he could guess: His Sa Ye, his darling youngest, had not come home in two nights. It was somewhat surprising that the Prince had not sent for him yet to say he was taking Sa Ye away, but his Highness was a young man still, a boy really, and busy these last two days gadding about with the one-eyed Elder and Sanwai and other ruffians.

Deng Po smiled even through the headache. His second daughter's future was assured, far better than his first. She would never need to work another day in her life, never again chap her hands washing clothes nor roughen them weeding fields. Fate had brought incredible luck his way, and he had not hesitated to use it to his advantage. His daughter's advantage.

He bore the dizzy spell as he stood and braved the sunlight to go outside. It seemed safe enough now, for things were quiet and he heard the voices of his neighbors. Surely it was not too soon to discuss a proper dowry, with all the deference due to the Prince's station of course. It might not strictly be a marriage but it was just as good, right? This was a Prince of the Realm, not some ordinary Li or Chang.

He wandered through the village as though in a dream, trying to steady the shaking world by taking measured steps. The place was a mess; the fields were churned to mud, the waterway from the reservoir all broken with the villagers swarming over it as they worked to pull a rock from the stone slope. Some of the houses looked burned, and rubble was strewn about the entrance to the village around the metal frame of a dismantled catapult. The village barbarians had been at it all night, no surprise there. He just hoped no one had been killed.

Deng Po reached the Elder's house and walked past the open gate, then around to the east wing where the guest rooms were. His heart jolted at the sight of Sa Ye sitting out on the wooden wraparound porch. She was dressed with shocking plainness in her cotton work clothes instead of that dress Mi Ye had sent, but the dreamy smile on her face made him ache. He would miss her, his little girl, but it was enough to know he had ensured her prosperous future at a Prince's side. How many fathers could say as much?

Just as he was about to call out to her, she turned her head at a different voice and smiled. A boy—was that Sanwai's youngest? Deng watched, incredulous, as the boy sat down next to her and took her hand. She did not shake off the lowly peasant boy; far from it, she smiled at him and a blush colored her cheeks.

"Sa Ye." Deng Po's voice came out a hollow whisper as the sunny morning seemed to darken around him. And then his voice recovered to a harsh bark. "Sa Ye!"

His daughter looked up, startled, as did the boy. Deng Po strode across the yard to them, his head spinning from the blood that rushed to it.

"Father-" Sa Ye stood, raising an arm as if to stop him. But Deng Po would not be stopped; he would not stand by and watch his daughter ruin her life. Sa Ye, his little Sa Ye, would not marry a peasant and work herself to death in this hellhole; she would not become like his Chia, so long gone.

That conviction rose within him in a rush and propelled his arm forward, and his palm made contact with her face with a smack. Sa Ye stumbled back and caught herself on a pillar, her other arm going around her midriff as she steadied herself.

He moved again, intent on _dragging_ Sa Ye home. How could she show such appalling judgment, associating with a peasant boy where the Prince might see? Was she going to throw away the future he had worked so hard to ensure for her?

At that moment his hand was caught and his arm twisted, the pain so intense he thought the bone would break. He cried out and struggled, but that just made it worse.

"Don't you touch her." The voice was a low growl in his ear. Deng looked over his shoulder for a glance at the peasant boy's face before he was pushed away, the ground coming up hard to meet him. He looked up from where he sat sprawled on the ground as the boy placed himself protectively in front of Sa Ye.

"Get out," said Sanwai's son. "I don't want to see you near Sa Ye again."

Deng Po grimaced and massaged his shoulder, which still burned from the way the young thug had twisted it. The hand-shaped singe on his sleeve reminded him, however, that he had the upper hand here.

"I should be the one to say that, young man." He dusted himself off as he stood. "I can get you sent away for quite a long time, if the royal recruiters catch wind of a shirking firebender." He stroked the burned spot on his sleeve.

The cursed boy did not even blink. "No, you can't. I'm a member of Prince Zuko's guard, and I leave with him for the palace tomorrow." He cast a look over his shoulder at the door behind him. "If he's up by then."

"And I'm going with them." Sa Ye came up behind the boy and took his arm. "Khoujin and I are getting married at the capital."

"Sa Ye. Sa Ye, listen to me, child." Deng Po took a step forward. Khoujin gave him a warning glance and he walked no further. He kept talking, though, desperate to make his daughter understand. "If Prince Zuko will not have you I can still arrange things with Captain Kang, a young man and most likely Lord Zhen's heir, don't you see-"

Sa Ye burst out laughing while Sanwai's son grinned like an idiot. Deng Po looked at the two children, lost.

"Captain Kang is right here, Father. Find him and arrange the match at the village granary, I don't care."

"I don't know how glad he'll be to see you, though." The young ruffian next to her chuckled.

Deng Po opened his mouth, but for a long moment could think of nothing to say. The sunny day seemed to tumble down around him, all he had worked for and all he planned in ruins.

"We thought maybe we'd let you think things worked out the way you wanted, with Prince Zuko." Sa Ye sighed, the way she cast her eyes down reminding Deng Po achingly of her mother. "But now that you know... it won't happen, Father. Not with Zuko, or any rich or powerful man you can think of. I want Khoujin, and no one else." Her hand found the boy's in a tight grip.

"You're throwing your life away," He felt as though a passing wind could blow him away, a husk of a man who had nothing and no one, lighter than dust. "He'll give you nothing but drudgery and struggle, when you could have worn silks and furs every day—you still can, it's not too-"

"You don't get it, do you." Sa Ye's eyes glittered with tears. "You don't know what I want, and you never cared."

"I know you think you love this boy." He remembered love well, how sweet it was to take Chia's hand in his, the silken feel of her hair against his cheek. It had not been enough to save them from poverty, or from backbreaking work. "But you're young, and love passes. It's not an easy world out there, daughter. Love doesn't put food on the table."

"No, a man who drinks himself into a stupor every day doesn't put food on the table." There was a terrible light in her eyes. "Don't think I've forgotten how Mother worked herself to the bone to keep our family fed, and how you stole from her to keep drinking."

"That's not true," his voice was shrill in his own ears, and his heart pounded painfully. "You'll stop your lying right this moment."

"Not a step closer." Khoujin held up a hand that sparked with fire while he tightened his other arm around Sa Ye.

"I swore to myself." Sa Ye's tears overflowed but her voice was steady. "I swore on the sun and moon and everything in sight that my husband would be a _good_ man, a man I love who loves me."

She looked at him as if waiting for an answer, but her father could think of nothing to say. What she said wasn't true, couldn't be true, but the thought of convincing her was overwhelming and he was so tired. The thirst rose up in him, the enemy that lay with him more intimate than a lover, choking him.

"I know you love me in your own way, and you want the best for me the way you see it. But it's not me." She looked up into his face but Deng Po looked away, unable to meet her eyes.

"You did this." Instead he turned on Sanwai's son, wanting to knock the boy down, to punch him in the face and see his blood. "You lured my little girl away-"

"Get out. My position in the Prince's guard is the only thing that protects you." The boy's smile was unpleasant. "You don't want to know what I'd do to you if I could."

"Sa Ye. Child-"

"I've tried to help you, Father. But I'm not that strong, or that smart. I think I can help me and that's about it." She walked onto the porch and into the room beyond, walking away from him forever.

"Deng." the boy frowned in concern at him. "Are you all right?"

He turned his back on the boy and stumbled across the yard. The thirst crept up to sink cold claws into his shoulders, and he welcomed it. It was all that kept away the thoughts snapping at his heels. It was all he had.

* * *

"He's gone," Khoujin called. Hearing no answer, he stepped up to the porch and pushed open the door bit by bit to make no sound.

Zuko lay sprawled in a tangle of sheets in the middle of the room, sound asleep, while Sa Ye sat in the corner by the door. She wiped a hand across her eyes before she looked up.

"You all right?" He sat down next to her, taking her hand in both of his. Sa Ye smiled at him, her eyes a little too bright.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"You don't need to say that." He put an arm around her shoulders. She leaned into his chest, sighing in contentment. "Why didn't you tell him about the baby?"

"He doesn't deserve to know." At her sharp voice Zuko turned over in the futon, mumbling, and they both went still until he settled down again.

"He's still your old man." Khoujin stroked her hair.

"I know. It's just that-" she flushed pink. "It was embarrassing to admit to my own father, all right?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Khoujin's laugh rumbled against her. "Telling mine was the hardest thing I ever did."

"You never told me what happened, when you told him."

"Eh." Khoujin shrugged, jostling her. "He beat me with a broomstick until it broke. Then he hit me with the pieces. He cried. I cried."

Sa Ye reached up to turn his face so she could kiss his cheek. "Then he went out and moved heaven and earth for you."

"Heaven and earth... and a prince." Khoujin looked at Zuko, who had kicked off the thin sheets and lay with his mouth open.

Sa Ye disengaged herself and crept over to the prince, where she pulled the sheets back over him and stroked his hair away from his face. He leaned into the touch, smiling in his sleep.

"Do you think our child will be like him?" She placed her other hand on her belly.

"Well, woman." Khoujin's voice was gruff as he came to sit next to her. "I'm no king, to have a prince for a son."

"You are." The morning light shone softly in her eyes. "To me, you are."

He leaned down as she tilted her face back, and their lips met in a melting warmth. She brought up her hands to cup his face while he drew her closer, the need urgent in the fierce way they deepened the kiss, in the way he crushed her to him.

Zuko moaned and stirred, almost waking; the young lovers froze, their senses returning as they drew away from each other. Then a little girl's voice piped up from the yard.

"Khoujin, Sa Ye, you there? Elder wants to see you!"

Khoujin hurried to the door and opened it a crack to hiss, "Quiet!" Meanwhile Sa Ye patted Zuko, soothing him until he fell once more into deep sleep.

Sa Ye went to the door where Khoujin waited, and they started snorting with laughter as soon as they met each other's eyes. They squeezed out the door together, shushing each other, and exchanged nods with Shun who stood by the Prince's door. The two walked down the porch and around to the the Elder's room hand in hand.


	16. Chapter 7: While He Was Sleeping 2 of 2

"So I understand you'll be leaving without getting married first." Lao Tai's yellow-brown eye fixed upon the boy and girl who sat across from him.

"No." Khoujin met the Elder's eye. "We both serve Prince Zuko now, and he can't wait for the wedding preparations."

They left it unsaid that Zuko needed to secure a royal decree protecting Tamalan, if their respite after the battle the night before were to become secure. Even with Kang as their hostage, the village would have no real safety without the Firelord's protection.

"The Prince promised to pay for our wedding when we get to the capital." Sa Ye blushed. "I don't know how to thank him."

"He is responsible for the two of you, the three of you now. You can accept such favors." Lao Tai's few teeth glinted in a fond smile. "Serve him faithfully and well, that is the best thanks."

"We're sorry not to have our family and friends there." Khoujin sounded wistful. "I always thought you'd be the one to bless my wedding, Elder." Sa Ye nodded in agreement.

"But you will be serving a prince, and that is a far greater thing than any three-day feast."

Khoujin nodded. "That's what Dad said, too."

"Your father is a wise man."

"I'll be sure not to tell him that, sir. It'll just give him a big head."

"And what of your father?" Lao Tai turned to Sa Ye. "I thought I heard an... altercation."

"He's not happy." Sa Ye looked away. "More reason not to have the wedding here."

"I should have done more for you, these past years."

"You've done everything you could." Sa Ye swallowed. "I'll be sending what money I can from the palace, but I'm sending it to you and not him. I want you to spend it for Father, and make sure he doesn't waste it on drink."

"Your trust honors me." Lao Tai bowed his head to her, then looked to both of them. "I have two things for you. One is a present, and the other a favor to ask."

The young couple demurred, saying he didn't have to, but Lao Tai held his hand out and placed a slender, worn book on the desk before him.

"Read...ing..." Khoujin read, glaring at the title page while Sa Ye gave it a blank look.

"It's a children's reading and composition book," said Lao Tai. "You never had the patience for it, Khoujin, and Sa Ye, you never had the time after your poor mother passed."

"For us?" Sa Ye's gaze was full of wonder.

"A little thing. I want you to find a teacher, and teach each other when you can. Knowledge will enable you to better serve Prince Zuko and be better parents."

Sa Ye took the book from the desk and hugged it to herself. "Thank you." Khoujin looked green at the prospect, but nodded.

"And what is the favor?" he asked.

Lao Tai turned to a cabinet behind him and opened the lock to bring out a package small enough to hold in one hand. It was wrapped in white silk embroidered with gold, and Khoujin and Sa Ye looked in awe at the fine material.

"This." Lao Tai placed the package on the desk. He unwrapped it to reveal an old-fashioned men's headpiece with a flame motif on either side, the light in the room bright on the gold craftsmanship. He placed another object next to it, something that looked like a small block of stone or wood with paper folded and wrapped around it. The letters on the inside showed black through the thin sheet.

"What _is_ that?" Sa Ye leaned close to the headpiece without daring to touch.

"An heirloom. I need it delivered, and you two are the only ones I can trust completely."

"And is that... a letter wrapped around a Pai Sho tile?" Khoujin lifted the other object, testing its weight. "Why would you want to send it like that?"

"That is no concern of yours. The important thing is, I need these delivered to the Royal City."

"Who should we give them to?" Khoujin put the tile down.

"A woman by the name of Ty Sian. She was Assistant Lady Chamberlain at the palace the last I heard, in charge of the maids and servants. I think you should be able to secure a meeting with her, Sa Ye."

"Do you think she's still there?" Khoujin looked skeptical. "I don't notice you getting a lot of letters or visitors from the capital."

"True. And I have been reminded recently that my information is not always up to date." The old man sighed. "That is why I will give you another name, in case you can no longer reach Ty Sian." He hesitated.

"Well?" Khoujin raised an eyebrow.

"General Iroh. If the lady is no longer at her post, trust no one else but take it directly to the Prince."

"The Dragon of the West?" Sa Ye, shrank away.

"The Firelord's brother?" Khoujin's jaw dropped.

"Prince Zuko's uncle," said Lao Tai. "The crown, the letter, and tile are for him. I hope you will be able see Ty Sian, who can be trusted, but I know of no one else."

"Why not just give them to Prince Zuko?" Khoujin looked at the things on the desk as though they were spider-snakes. "He can meet his uncle at any time."

"That is another thing. You must tell no one of your errand, not even Prince Zuko."

"And not the Firelord." Khoujin frowned.

"Never."

"I don't know. We don't know what we're getting into." Khoujin cast a dark glance at the headpiece.

"What does this have to do with serving Prince Zuko?" Sa Ye's eyes were intent on the objects on the desk.

"It has everything to do with serving him. I saw- something at the spirit place yesterday, and I believe the headpiece is Prince Zuko's. Getting it and my account of the incident to Prince Iroh will help mobilize the Prince's allies." He looked to the two young people in turn. "Surely you realize, his efforts on our behalf will earn him enemies. He will need people on his side."

"But he still can't know," said Khoujin.

"Not yet. His uncle can tell him when he sees fit, but I believe he will wait some years."

"I just don't know. It seems pretty dangerous." Khoujin cast a sidelong glance at Sa Ye.

"I'll do it," she said. "If Khoujin doesn't want to, I'll do the task alone."

"Will you swear to secrecy?" Lao Tai's eye shifted to the two of them in turn.

"I swear not to tell anyone," Sa Ye said at once. "And I will see to it the headpiece and letter reach Lady Ty Sian or Prince Iroh. I swear it on the life of my unborn child."

"Sa Ye!" Khoujin turned to her, horror-struck. Even Lao Tai looked stunned.

"I wouldn't be keeping this baby if it weren't for Prince Zuko." She covered Khoujin's hand with her own. "The child's life belongs to him now. If there is the least thing I could do for his Highness, no matter how little..."

The look in Khoujin's eyes softened. "My life belongs to him, too. I accept the task, and I'll keep the secret." He looked at Lao Tai. "I swear on the memory of my great-great uncle Yan who was dear to you, Elder. That's how you found the headpiece, wasn't it? When the two of you traveled together, when you were younger."

"Much, much younger. Who would have thought he would travel all over the world, only to fall to his death so close to home... Ah, it was a long time ago." Lao blinked, both the seeing eye and the blind one deep in reminiscence. "I tried to watch over his family since, and our village. I did the best I could."

"You did." Khoujin swallowed. "You did so much for us, and I- you're more family to us than blood."

The old man nodded. There was silence for a few moments as the sunlight brightened and grew warmer.

Khoujin coughed. "The first thing we need is plainer wrappings. I'm not carrying anything 'secret' in that white silk."

"But the cloth is so pretty." Sa Ye reached out to touch it.

Just then there was commotion outside, the sound of wheels and beasts, and voices. Khoujin went to the door while Lao Tai put away the headpiece and the letter-wrapped tile.

"What is it?" Khoujin looked out to see a villager marching before him a bookishly stooped man in a neat mustache and a robe that swished around his legs when he walked.

"They came in with a bunch of armed guards and demanded to see the prince," said the villager, his spear trained at the stranger's back. "The Elder needs to see him first."

"And here I am." Lao Tai came up behind Khoujin, who stepped aside for him. "I am called Lao Tai, sir, the Elder of the village. And you are?"

"Oh, it's an honor to meet you." The mustached man eyed the scowling villager behind him, then put his hands together and bowed to the Elder. "I am called Lu Shi, a humble Master of Laws and Decrees. I also have the honor of teaching Prince Zuko. Is- is he here?" He looked around. "Is he all right? We came as soon as we could."

Lao Tai looked down at Lu for a few moments, then waved. "Put your spear away," he told the villager. "I doubt he is dangerous. Khoujin, go send Shun to vouch for Master Lu, and stand guard in his stead."

"Well," said the old man as Khoujin hurried away and Sa Ye peeked out the door from behind him, "I think it's almost time for the children to go." His smile was one of both joy and pain.

* * *

Twelve guards fled the village of Tamalan at dawn to report back to their lord. Their rhinos and mongoose dragons captured, killed, or maimed, they were resigned to legging it back supporting wounded comrades, looking over their shoulder all the while for the crazed villagers or the naked child prince at their head pursuing with fire and steel.

At mid-morning the ragged band spotted a trader's cart ambling across the grasslands from behind them. The trader was on his way to the port city and allowed the wounded to ride on his cart, partly because he was friendly with some of the soldiers and partly because they were armed and outnumbered him.

As the cart trundled eastward the soldiers' story spilled out among the sacks of grain, ropes of dried river-fish and bolts of plain cloth, heavily colored fragments of a tale from men who needed to talk after what they had been through.

The trader let the guards off in sight of the castle as dusk cast the long shadow of the volcano over them all. He had gone out of his way for an act of kindness, and he needed to continue on if he wished to reach the port before daybreak.

Besides, he had a story he couldn't wait to tell his drinking buddies in the city.

Ten men returned at nightfall to Lord Zhen to report the events at Tamalan. Lord Zhen had letters and reports to write, some way to set this nightmarish situation aright and have his nephew and other guards returned. In the meantime he forbade the ones who had returned from leaving the castle.

He knew nothing, however, about the two men who had continued their journey with the trader. Their hurts were light and they had decided to take an impromptu vacation at the city. Arriving late at night, one stumbled into a bar and the other into a house of ill repute. The trader went to his usual inn. All had plenty of drink and companions for their tale.

The next day was the start of the five-day market, and by the time Lord Zhen's guards stationed in the city got wind of the events at Tamalan, so had the rest of the city. When Prince Zuko in Tamalan arose from a full day and night of sleep, rubbing his eyes and contemplating a bath, he was also inhabiting the imaginations of dozens, then hundreds and soon thousands. People talked in the markets and decks of ships as they sailed, wrote onto pieces of paper that flew with hawks or ran with couriers.

Not that Zuko would have recognized himself in some of these stories. In one of them he fought an Agni Kai against thirty, no fifty men at the same time and won. In another, he led the bloodthirsty villagers against Lord Zhen's entire guard and slaughtered them all, wielding two wicked swords and gouts of fire. In still another, the prince had enlisted the aid of waterbenders and a powerful airbender to repel the attack of Zhen's men, drowning them in the water of the reservoir.

One story said a dragon had come down from the mountain and fought alongside the young prince, helped drive the soldiers away and crowned the boy with fire. Somehow this version of events proved enduring in its popularity even as the more fantastic and inaccurate stories were weeded out. The dragon was The Dragon of the West himself come to aid his nephew, some whispered, never out loud.

* * *

"Yes, you will support me, because I'm all you have now," Azula said in triumph to the noblemen who came to see her, had _begged_ to come see her as they struggled to come to grips with the new state of affairs. "Do you still think my brother is the safe choice, the pliant one? Look at the events at Tamalan and tell me yourself."

Yet she was less triumphant when she watched her father in open court, how the Firelord smirked at the discomfiture of his prominent courtiers, at the way they bowed and scraped extra low as though they had something to fear now.

Silent ripples went through the court when the Firelord talked for almost an extra minute with Yao Teng, her friend's father and certainly no great landowner, just a career bureaucrat. It was a signal; everything was a signal in this court of shadows and whispers.

"And what of the matter of taxing hereditary grants, your Majesty?" Yao's forehead beaded with sweat at the extra attention.

"I think," said Ozai with a slow smile, "that we can discuss the matter when my son is by my side again."

The gathered nobles trembled, and Azula bit the inside of her lip until she drew blood. Everything was a signal.

* * *

_Next: Zuko is a rock star, and Iroh worries._


	17. Chapter 8: The Dragon Prince 1 of 2

The Don Camillo reference from the last chapter was to the story (whose title I've long forgotten) where a girl announced to her father that she was pregnant—by a Communist! (dun-DUN!) The father beat her with a stick of firewood until it broke, then hit her with the pieces. Neither he nor the daughter bothered with tears, though.

Thanks so much to amanda91, ArrayePL, cm27815, FairLadyZ2005, Mira, Rioshix, and Stingmon for reviewing. Thanks especially to FairLady for giving me valuable feedback that really improved the throne room scene at the end of Chapter 5: The Reservoir. Seriously, I have some of the best reviewers in the world and you guys are my inspiration.

So without further ado...

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 8: The Dragon Prince**

* * *

子曰 德不孤 必有鄰

Said the Master: "Virtue is never lonely, for the virtuous will always have friends."

論語 第四篇 里仁

Analects of Confucius Chapter 4, "Living in Brotherhood"

* * *

They crested the hill and gazed down the sweep of the land at the small port at the northern edge of the island and the sea beyond. There was not much to see: A few low buildings, a few boats in port, and one ship anchored at a distance offshore. The sea was choppy, jutting with rocks bathed in the foam of the waves. One look and it was evident why the north of Azhoran had no equivalent to the bustling port in the east.

"Well, the ship is waiting. Let's go." Prince Zuko drove his heels in the sides of his rhino, driving it forward down the slope.

Master Lu spurred his own mount forward after him. He was not used to sitting long hours in the saddle and his aching back and thighs reminded him constantly of this fact. His long-awaited reunion with his wife, he feared, would not be all it should be if he kept riding at this pace.

Yet it was for a good cause, he reminded himself as he looked over his shoulder at the carriage. He had insisted that the young village girl take it when he learned of her condition, and did not regret it. His own Nanhua would expect no less of him, and he remembered well how worn she had been when she'd carried their children. Yes, she would understand—he winced as the rhino trudged down the path, jostling his sore legs—even if meant dealing with a husband who would be more invalid than man for a while.

It was hardly a triumphal march homeward for a prince who had won a great victory. Lu looked around at the prince's retinue, his guards augmented by odd new recruits; the young man who hovered incessantly around the carriage, and five men still in the black and brown uniform of Zhen's guard. They had turned against Kang in the battle at Tamalan and had asked to follow Prince Zuko. The other attendants rode or walked largely in silence. Shun brought up the rear, ever watchful. Though not quite despondent, the prince's retinue were certainly a quiet lot as they made for the town with the sea wind in their faces.

Master Lu looked at Zuko riding ahead, somehow looking small small even though he had grown taller and more broad-shouldered in the course of their travels. He was coming into his growth and, from all Lu had heard, his talents at last, but the fact appeared to be little consolation for the preoccupied young man.

Lu remembered how the prince had been when he received his father's letter three days before, at Tamalan. The sleep had barely left the boy's face, nor the excited joy at seeing his retainers safe (Lu's heart still warmed at the memory) when he learned the messenger hawk from the palace waited for him. Lu's chest ached at the memory of watching the light go out of the young prince's face on reading his royal father's letter.

The Firelord's order had been curt and to the point: Do nothing, and return immediately to the palace. The rest of the prince's itinerary had been canceled, and he was to return by the shortest possible route while staying away from the major population centers.

"Do nothing," Prince Zuko had looked without seeing at the village of Tamalan where people went about their day and saluted him heartily as they passed. "Nothing," he whispered.

At any rate it was a good idea, Lu consoled himself, to stay away from the eastern port they had come through. It was too close to Lord Zhen's castle and was the most populous locale on Azhoran, meaning it was forbidden as a stop on this return journey. They had followed Elder Lao's counsel to travel north through the hills to the northern port—more a large fishing village—and send to the ship to meet them there.

That leg of the journey had gone without incident, yet Prince Zuko did not seem happy. Master Lu caught up with him at the bottom of the hill, where the prince was waiting for the rest of the party to catch up.

"Have I done wrong?" The question burst out of Zuko without warning. "Is my father angry at me?"

"I know not, your Highness." It was the most honest answer he could give; he did not presume to know the mind of the Firelord. "But there are a number of reasons why his Majesty might have ordered your immediate return. Perhaps he fears for your safety."

"Do you think so?" The look Zuko gave him was so hopeful that Lu did not have the heart to say more, and only nodded in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

The rest of their retinue joined them, and they resumed their way to the port.

"Let us keep our minds on the matter at hand," he told the prince as they rode side by side. "Our priority is your safe and timely return to the palace. As the rest of our plans have been canceled, we cannot rely on protection from our hosts as we have so far."

"There isn't that much danger though, is there? We're in the Fire Nation."

"Assuming I was given an accurate version of events, Prince Zuko..." Lu pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. "You were nearly struck by catapult fire defending the village dam. In the Fire Nation."

"Oh, that. Kang just went a little crazy. I think losing that duel undid him."

"I have observed that people in general 'go a little crazy' when their self-interest is at stake." Lu sighed and tried to shift his seat on the saddle to give his aching bottom some relief. "I do not say there will certainly be trouble. But I am responsible for you, Prince Zuko, and it is best to be careful."

At the word 'responsible' Zuko swiveled to look at his teacher. "Did I get you in trouble? I'll tell Father it was all me, and it was! I don't want another teacher, and none of it was your fault-"

"Calm yourself, my Prince." Lu reined his beast closer to the prince's, wishing he had the proximity and balance to give the boy a pat on the shoulder. Zuko never took well to being separated from familiar faces, especially his caretakers. He seemed to feel that every parting was the last. "A little initiative is not an ill thing in a prince, and you did act to enforce the law of the land. You saw the legal opinion I prepared for you."

"Yes, I... did." Zuko looked away. "So why..."

Prince Zuko shook his head as if to will the question away, then spurred his mount ahead into the gates of the town.

"Why did the Firelord do nothing to enforce his own laws?" Master Lu finished for him in a low voice, amid the creaking of the carts, the many footfalls and the voices on the road.

He watched his charge go on ahead and wished he could tell his pupil that the Firelord was always wise and just, and that justice prevailed in the Fire Nation without fail; he wished his conscience allowed him to lie to his liege. He clucked his tongue and went on into the town, grimacing at the pain in his back.

* * *

"Mighty crowded place. I been here before, and never saw this many people."

The guard Tan Zui, lately of Zhen's guard, walked with the haft of his spear upright, his arms bulging with muscle and a paunch pushing at his belt. He talked out of a corner of his mouth while watching the daytime shadows that could hide so much.

Shun next to him nodded once, also watching his surroundings. He took in the eyes watching from windows, people dawdling in the alleys between buildings not even pretending to go about their business. The passing carts slowed or stopped, and the passerby stared openly.

"Bad idea, coming here," said Tan, "Getting provisions, sure, but we're too exposed."

Shun tensed, putting a stop to Tan's words. Two broad-shouldered men in their late twenties or early thirties approached the head of he procession, coming right up to the line of guards that stood before the prince.

"Look, we been watching for a while," began one of the strangers, bare-chested under his belted vest and a headband tied across his forehead, "and we can't help but wonder..."

Shun made his silent way to the front of the line, reaching for his dao.

"Yes?" Zuko looked down from his saddle, wary.

"And it's summat silly to ask," said the first man's companion, heavyset with a shaved head and a nose that had been broken more than once. "But are you... Prince Zuko?"

"I am." Zuko's hand drew slowly back to bend fire at need.

The two men moved at once; Shun shot forward, drawing his dao and separating the two halves in one clean move.

He stopped short, however, when the men knelt and then bowed in profound obeisance. Shun tried to stop himself by thrusting out a foot, but it caught a loose stone and he ended up pitching forward, landing in the dirt with blades and limbs splayed.

For a moment no one seemed to know what to say. The men peered up from their bow, mouths hanging open on what must have been a heartfelt speech. Shun sprang to his feet and started scanning the surrounding streets with an air of desperation.

"We're uh... from Chunka to the south," said one of the men, turning to Zuko. The men introduced themselves in turn. "We thought we might find you here, Prince Zuko. You know... to pay our respects."

"To see me?" Zuko's eyes widened with a look of wonder.

"We heard what you did at Tamalan." The shaved man's voice carried above the noise of the streets. "Prince Zuko, the Dragon Prince."

The excited whispers spread out like many ripples, and suddenly people were kneeling and bowing in a great wave, murmuring Zuko's name and the strange title in equal parts. Elsewhere the whispers had turned to shouts as people ran through the streets, carrying the news.

"Dragon..." Zuko looked openmouthed at all the people, more coming in at every moment to gawk and then to kneel. Soon he was pleading them to rise, for the street was getting very crowded and they were starting to jostle the retinue, something that made Shun's hand twitch repeatedly toward his sword.

The crowd did rise, but that did not stop the influx of more people and soon they were cheering the Dragon Prince with a gusto that seemed to shake the little town.

"Clear the way!" Khoujin jumped to the front of the procession, shooting a plume of fire into the sky. "Clear the way for the Dragon Prince!" He snatched the reins of Zuko's rhino and led the nervous animal forward, raising his voice in a tone of cheerful command that the crowd obeyed, parting for them.

"What are you doing?" Zuko shouted over the tumult as he waved and smiled nervously to the crowd. His guards had their hands full keeping the folk away. Parents raised children above their shoulders for a better look, while urchins climbed trees and rooftops.

Khoujin looked over his shoulder at Zuko, worry creeping into his eyes. "If you're going to be adored, let's do it where you have a little space." He turned to release another blast of fire. "Clear the way! Make way for the Dragon Prince!"

They found enough space by the waterfront with the sea at their back, and good thing, too—more and more people spilled out from the streets, laughing and cheering, numbering easily in the hundreds in a town that held maybe two or three hundred souls. The guards who had gone to purchase provisions had to drive the cart around the crowd, carrying far more than their budget could have afforded. It wasn't hard to see why when people followed the cart to pile yet more fish and rice on it.

"Mighty crowded." Tan Zui scanned the crowd for any untoward movement. Next to him, Shun said nothing. "Nice job protecting the Prince, by the way."

Shun made a soft growling sound, and Tan fell silent.

Zuko slid off his rhino with a sigh of relief, free of the crushing press behind a line of guards. Two of Zhen's former guards went to look for transports to the waiting ship for their beasts and provisions.

Master Lu, dismounting with a sigh and a wince, looked over the crowd and turned to the prince. "I think they want to hear from you, Prince Zuko."

"Hear from me? A speech?" Zuko looked at him, panicked. "I don't know what to say!"

"Nevertheless, it would not be fitting to leave such devotion without saying something." Lu indicated the crowd of laughing, excited faces. "Many of these people came a long way on the hope of seeing you."

"Couldn't you prepare something for me?" Zuko started biting a finger, then quickly withdrew it. "That's what we always did on this trip."

"Unfortunately, I did not think to prepare for this." Master Lu tucked his hands into his sleeves.

"I don't even have a place to stand."

"Where there is a will..." The Master of Laws and Decrees looked to his side at the large fishing boat moored at the quay, its raised deck casting a shadow over them where they stood.

So it was that Prince Zuko stood on the deck of a fishing boat moored for repair, the stage for his royal speech. Guards watching the crowd for any hint of violent movement flanked him and stood behind. The prince raised his hands, and the crowd quieted down leaving only the gentle slap of the waves on the quay.

"People of Azhoran." Zuko gulped. "I- I thank you for your kind welcome. I just wanted to say..." he gazed at them with his mouth open, eyes darting from side to side as if looking for something.

Master Lu leaned in to speak in Zuko's ear, but before he could say anything the deck rocked and sent them all scrambling. Zuko caught himself first and stood looking down at the crowd, adjusting his balance in time to the waves.

"I guess you're happy about what I did at Tamalan." The crowd cheered. "But I don't think... the reason I did that was because... because what else could I do? I couldn't stand back and do nothing." The confidence grew bright in his eyes as he met the eyes of his people.

"You are part of me, as surely as I am a part of you. We're of the same Nation. And no one," he swept a hand through the air, "can hurt you without hurting me."

He smiled, relaxing the electric atmosphere. "I am with you. I am... of you." The brilliance of the westering sun was on him, and his quiet voice carried across the hushed waterfront."We're in this together. We're together."

He thought for a moment, shrugged, and took a step back with a bow. Along the waterfront many bowed back, others went to their knees, and all started cheering. Zuko waved to them and descended from the boat, watching the rhinos and provisions being ferried across the water to the ship. Sa Ye, dismounting while the carriage was disassembled for loading, beamed and waved at him; he returned the gesture eagerly.

Almost as soon as he had his feet on the ground the crowd was on him again, just barely held back by the guards until Zuko let them through one by one. He hugged babies when they were thrust at him, though he was a bit miffed after a toddler punched him in the eye. He said thank you to those who professed gratitude, politely refused when asked to take this or that request for a favor to his father, and hid his grimace and advised finding a good doctor when an old man thrust a huge pustule on his forearm at his face.

As the sun went red and huge into the sea the preparations were complete. Zuko waved from the boat to the cheering people as he was rowed across the crimson water. Folk would later swear they saw a dragon in the black silhouette in his shadow cast by the blazing sun in the west. Others would dispute the account, saying it was just the prince's waving hand that gave superstitious minds the illusion of a dragon lashing in his elongated shadow.

Most agreed, however, that it was of little account. He and they were with each other, _of_ each other, and that was enough.

* * *

"So that's Baizen?" Khoujin peered into the telescope at the green island with buildings clustered near the shore. "It's huge!" He looked up from the telescope, grinning as the sea wind blew strands of hair away from his face.

"It is the next island in the Stepping Stones, after Azhoran." Master raised an amused eyebrow at the young man's eagerness. "We passed through and met its ruler on the way to your home island."

"But we're not seeing her again." Zuko slouched over the railing and glared at the island in the distance like it had done him wrong. "Stay away from population centers, remember?"

"You did not enjoy the meeting with Lady Kawan, as I recall," The Master of Laws and Decrees frowned and stood up extra straight as if to give a visual reminder to his charge, but the effort was wasted as Zuko never looked at him. "You said she wore too much perfume and kept thrusting her granddaughter into your presence."

"True." Zuko shuddered at the memory. "But now I can't go see her if even if I wanted to, and that's different." He scuffed at the deck as though kicking an invisible stone into the water. "I can't go see anyone."

"Can we go ashore?" Khoujin asked excitedly. Zuko perked up at that, looking over his shoulder at Master Lu.

"It is probably wiser not to." Master Lu was starting to look beleaguered at the two eager gazes—and more, from the guards around them. "We should acquire provisions and contact the imperial garrison here for assistance, but there is no need for anyone but the most essential personnel to leave the ship-"

A chorus of protests interrupted him. "We can still go ashore and not go near the cities!" The prince sounded close to whining. "We've been on the ship for _days._"

"I want to feel some ground under my feet," Khoujin looked with longing at the city on the shore. "And so does Sa Ye," he said more seriously. "She gets sick and won't get out of bed some mornings."

"Please, Master Lu?" Zuko looked up at his teacher, his eyes huge. "Just until the garrison commander tells us what we should do."

"Shun?" The Master of Laws and Decrees looked at the quiet presence at his side.

"I serve at the prince's pleasure," Shun's face was without expression. Master Lu gave a small nod and lowered his eyes. Shun's face softened and he added in a low voice: "The perimeter will be guarded, and we will scout the area."

Master Lu sighed. "Very well. We will go ashore while we resupply and await the imperial garrison's response."

Zuko and Khoujin cheered, the happiness radiating from them across the deck. The news spread through the crew and guards as the island grew large with the dwindling distance.

"Sometimes I worry overmuch," There was a tone of apology in Master Lu's voice as he stood next to Shun, watching Zuko laugh with Khoujin and a crew member.

"I understand, sir." Shun's gaze was also on Zuko before he looked away.


	18. Chapter 8: The Dragon Prince 2 of 2

The grass was fragrant on the wooded hills beyond the beach, the air alive with warmth. The ship had shed the bulk of its passengers in the form of Prince Zuko, most of his guards, and a few attendants, before it sailed for the nearest port to reprovision. Zuko watched it recede into the distance, the curving prow of the sloop parting the waters as its red sails with the black blazon on the mainsail filled with wind.

"It's great to be on land again. How do you feel, Sa Ye?" Zuko turned to the girl next to him where she sat on the grass, looking a little pale but smiling as she bent over a bit of needlework.

"Much better, your Highness. It's just a part of having a baby. Being on land helps." She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun, a hand on her belly.

"So how long have you- how far along is the baby?" Zuko sneaked a sidelong glance at her belly, which still looked flat under her tunic and skirt.

"Three and a half moons," she answered automatically. "The sickness should stop in a few weeks."

Zuko looked up at the sky as he calculated in his head. "An autumn baby." He started laughing. "You really didn't plan for it, did you?"

"Obviously not," Sa Ye blushed, bending over her sewing project. "Why?"

"Because you'd have tried for a summer baby if you were planning." Zuko lay back on the grass, looking up at the sky. "Khoujin's a firebender, and your baby could be one."

"Is it a bad thing?" She looked up anxiously. "A bender born in the fall?"

"It's not as bad as winter." The smile faded from Zuko's face as he watched the clouds. "But they're healthiest, and strongest, if they're born in the height of summer. Like my sister."

Sa Ye looked over at him, her expression thoughtful. "When were you born?"

When Zuko didn't answer, she went on: "I think you said you'll be fourteen this winter, when-" her face reddened again. "I might have heard wrong, though."

"You heard right. I was born in the dead of winter, the coldest in years. It was supposed to be spring, but I came too early. My mother and I almost died." He frowned up at the sky.

"I didn't know,"

"Yeah, well, your baby's going to be fine, Sa Ye," Zuko sat up. "I won't let anything happen to you, or him. Or her."

"Your Highness." She bowed her head to him.

They fell into companionable silence as they watched the guards train on the beach below, Khoujin among them as he leaped and ducked multiple streams of flame. Her eyes on him, Sa Ye tensed in time to his movements.

"Aren't you going to join the training? I haven't seen you train since-" she turned in time to see Zuko's chin dropping to his chest in a doze. She smiled even as her eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"Prince Sleepyhead." She pulled at his shirt. "Lie down at least if you want to take a nap."

Zuko's eyes fluttered half open, and he let himself sway to her pull until he leaned against her shoulder. Then he lowered himself so his head was in her lap, mumbling, "Sure, thanks."

"That's not what I-" Sa Ye looked around, flustered. Below them, Khoujin was bowing to his instructor and turned to climb the hill up to them. She raised her eyebrows and looked down in time to see Zuko smirk, his eyes still closed. She stifled a giggle behind her hand and picked up her sewing.

"They're all madmen here, Sa Ye." Khoujin panted as he came up to her. "I swear they're trying to kill me."

Sa Ye put a finger to her lips, her eyes dancing. He paused at the sight of Zuko with his head pillowed in her lap.

"Hey, your Highness." Khoujin plopped himself down next to Sa Ye. "That's my spot."

"Go away." Zuko's eyes remained closed. "I'm a growing boy and I need my sleep."

"Funny," snapped Khoujin. "Now kindly take your head off my wife's lap."

Zuko cracked an eye open to peer at him. "Technically she's not your wife yet. And where else should I lie down? In your lap?"

"No way!" Khoujin recoiled.

"Then stop complaining." Zuko closed his eyes again. "She smells a lot nicer than you anyway."

Khoujin seemed about to argue when Shun came out of the trees behind them without a sound, asking to see Khoujin's stance. The young firebender glared at Zuko, kissed Sa Ye's cheek, and went away grumbling.

"Why do you tease him like that?" Sa Ye untied Zuko's hair and mussed it.

"Payback." He rolled over on his back and grinned up at her, his eyes heavy with sleep. "For attacking his sovereign prince."

She laughed and put her arms around him, rocking back and forth with a smile on her face as she watched Khoujin and Shun.

"Besides, you do smell nice." Zuko also turned his head to watch Shun correct Khoujin's stance. "Like Mom. Or Mai."

"Who's Mai?"

"Some girl." After a moment he added: "Azula's friend. A little older than her, though. She's twelve, but I bet she's almost as tall as you. And she's kind of quiet and graceful and-" he grew red.

Sa Ye looked up, smiling to herself, then winced in sympathy when Shun's foot shot out at Khoujin's ankle, sending the father of her child to the ground in a heap. He complained nonstop as Shun helped him back up.

When she looked down again Zuko was sound asleep. "Thank you, Prince Zuko," she whispered, ruffling his hair. "Thank you."

* * *

Dusk had fallen, and the guards were pitching tents along the hill and in the trees when their ship returned. Zuko went down to meet the boats as they rowed into the inlet.

"Ah, making camp already, I see." Master Lu stepped from the first boat, his feet sinking into the wet sand that the receding water left behind. "We have acquired excellent chickenduck at a bargain price, and the cook promises it will be a masterpiece."

"Tell him to ease off on the chili this time." Zuko grimaced.

"The young lady from Tamalan will have to move upwind," Master Lu added. "From my experience, the smell of meat will likely make her ill."

"Master Lu." Shun came up to them across the beach. He bowed to Zuko. "Forgive me, but we must leave immediately."

"What is it?" Zuko's teacher asked, taken aback.

"An unidentified armed group approaches. They are as yet an hour away, but they approach in stealth and directly in our direction."

"How many?" Master Lu's face hardened while Zuko looked back at the trees, tensing.

"About twenty, perhaps more." Shun's eyes flicked back at the camp, then at the guardsmen rowing in.

"About our own strength." Lu almost groaned. "I thought perhaps to capture them for information, but at those numbers..."

"We also might not be their targets," said Shun, though without conviction. He glanced fleetingly at Zuko. "But it is best to be safe."

"Is there..." Master Lu hesitated, as though afraid to ask. "Has there been an answer from the local garrison?"

"No."

The two men's eyes met, and a consensus was reached in silence.

"Go break the camp," ordered Master Lu. "Let's go, Prince Zuko. You are going directly to the ship." He turned away.

"But... the imperial garrison knows where we are, right? We sent them a hawk." Zuko hurried after him. "Their troops will be here any moment, and then they can fortify our position."

"Prince Zuko..." Master Lu hesitated. "It is dark already. Our hawk may have been late, and the soldiers might not arrive until morning." He placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Please understand, my first responsibility is your safety."

"All right." Zuko stepped into the waiting boat while his teacher informed his men about the change in plans. With a groan, several guards went onto tho boat with Zuko while others stayed behind, scanning the darkened beach and the area around it.

They broke camp and rowed back to the ship in near silence, the fear an oppressive thing in the air. They stood at the railings, watching the beach recede as their ship set sail.

"Sir," called the lookout from their starboard side. "Approaching vessels."

"Is it the imperial guard?" Zuko went to the railing as the guards took their positions.

Boats of all shapes and sizes were making their way to them over the water, their lanterns shining in the dark. When the sloop sailed out of the inlet and into the sea the boats changed course to follow, and a faint cheering rose from them.

"Oh, dear." Master Lu came up from behind Zuko. "I believe they are from the harbor city where we stopped, during the day." He looked over his shoulder at the mainsail with the Fire Nation emblem dark on its red expanse. "They put two and two together, evidently."

"Wow." Zuko hung on the railing, waving in the direction of the boats though he was unlikely to be visible in the dark at that distance.

Master Lu instructed the guards to keep an eye out for any danger and stepped away from the railing to where Shun stood alone.

"It appears, notwithstanding the Firelord's orders, that we _make_ population centers where we go."

"No." Shun's gaze went to Zuko's back. "The Prince does."

"Do you think any of them were the ones who brought our intruders on us?" Master Lu gazed at the dots of light that receded behind them, unable to catch up with the larger ship, then at the dark inlet they had just left.

"Perhaps. But how would they have known the Prince's precise whereabouts? Unless one of your party talked, at the town."

"Maybe a fisherman saw the ship at anchor in the bay," said Lu. "Or someone from the shore."

"It's possible" Shun frowned. "Whoever those armed men were, they could have been keeping watch themselves."

Their eyes met again, the knowledge reflected in their gazes. The ones who were in the best position to know both their exact location and their identity were the imperial garrison, to whom they had given that information.

"We will change to a plainer sail," said Master Lu. "And we sail straight to the mainland now, with no stops on the shore."

"Yes." Shun inclined his head.

"And I want you to watch the guards as well, Shun," Lu continued. "A few are probably spies, that is inevitable, but are any of them traitors? I will need your eyes and ears."

Shun bowed as Master Lu left him. Before long the odor of chickenduck drifted through the ship and much of the crew went below for the evening meal.

Left almost alone on the deck, the watch training his telescope on the waters around them, Shun reached into his sleeve and withdrew a small metal disk. It had been on the message cylinder strap on the hawk that delivered the Firelord's letter to his son at Tamalan, and Shun had had to take it off before it attracted anyone else's attention.

He examined it now, the red on surface flaking away at the scratch of a nail. The yellow underneath gave off a dull glow in the lamplight.

Shun examined the solid trapezoid and circle of the Earth Kingdom on one side of the disk, then turned it over to look at the flowering tree design on the other. It had not changed in the days and nights he had examined it since Tamalan, a warning and reminder.

It was almost unbelievable that the hawk had made it through the imperial waystations without challenge. The next time might not be as fortunate, if a sharper-eyed or more attentive guard caught sight of such a sign.

Next time, the reminder from Princess Azula might not be as gentle.

He grasped his fist convulsively around the disk, raised his hand, and hesitated. At last he threw it away into the water, grimacing as though he tore something away from himself. He leaned on the railing, looking for a long time out at the dark water that passed him by in the night, never staying.

* * *

Where was he? That was the question on everyone's lips at court. There were no secrets here, Iroh thought as he walked down the hall to the war meeting. Already it was known to nobles, functionaries, pretenders and hangers-on that Prince Zuko had sent the messenger hawk back from Tamalan promising to return immediately. It was also known that he had stopped at Baizen, but since then there was only silence.

And the question had taken on a life of its own to become a new kind of parlor game, one Iroh stayed away from because some of the proposed answers made him sick to the stomach. Zuko had met a storm and been wrecked at sea. He had been taken prisoner by some rogue noble, or peasant rebels, or bandits, or pirates. Or, some whispered, assassins had found him on the road...

It was this last possibility that troubled Iroh at night and sometimes had him sitting bolt upright from a nightmare, clutching at his pounding heart and calling out a name, sometimes Zuko's, sometimes Lu Ten's. The darkness in his room never answered back.

He walked past the guards on either side of the entrance and parted the emblazoned drapes to enter the war chamber. He exchanged bows and nods with the generals and admirals gathered around the map table, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

Zuko was in danger. Iroh had to assume as much from the way people would fall silent at the mention of Zuko or Tamalan, from the way the nobility flocked to Azula, and how some of them huddled together in whispered speech until Iroh approached. He had to assume, also, that Master Lu was following the request he had given by letter. If that was the reason for Zuko's silence, then an old man worrying himself sick was small enough price to pay for that bit of safety.

The best Iroh could do right now was add to that confusion, and he had discreetly asked trusted contacts to spread false sightings and rumors of his nephew. This meant the players in the "Where in the Nation is Prince Zuko?" game flocked to and fro on rumor after rumor, the amusement of which might have been worth the trouble by itself. But Iroh had a larger goal in mind with this exercise: Not only did the disinformation cloud Zuko's actual whereabouts, it could draw out the men who had hostile intentions for the young prince.

"Forgive me." He realized he had been spoken to. "My mind wandered. You were saying, Admiral Kai?"

The bearded and balding general next to him bowed to show he had taken no offense. "I wondered what you thought of the proposal to take Huakang and Beiyang, General Iroh." He stroked his luxuriant white beard, his face neutral.

"I believe it may well be a strenuous campaign." He wished he had a long beard to stroke, too; it helped one look wise while earning time. "These are well-defended provinces." He left unsaid what they both knew: Their forces were already stretched to breaking point, and the offense would require many new recruits and more revenue.

"I see." Kai nodded once, and their eyes met in understanding. "We will listen—carefully—to General Shu's case for the invasion."

"Yes," said Iroh. "We will."

They looked together over at Shu, his mustachio drooping to either side of his goatee like that of a flame-carp. He was talking to Generals Lak and Xing, exchanging easy words and the occasional laugh. Shu had always had many friends, and seemed to have more of late.

The torchlit room brightened as the oil-filled trenches along the dais flared with golden fire. On cue, Iroh and the rest of the generals stood and bowed to the Firelord as he entered. Ozai seated himself behind the screen of flames—now there was a reason to be glad he never took the throne, Iroh could feel the heat even from where he was—and gestured to his generals to sit.

After the appropriate formalities, General Shu stood to present his proposal for the conquest of Huakang and Beiyang on the north coast of the Earth Kingdom. Iroh listened with half an ear to the general's reasons; cutting off Ba Sing Se from the North Sea, making the supply lines more efficient and so on. Meanwhile he searched Shu's face and voice, wondering why the ambitious general was proposing such a difficult assault. What did he gain from this? Whose favor would he rise in?

Then the Firelord spoke, and Iroh forgot all about General Shu.

"This plan, General Shu, will require a levy of soldiers, ships, machines of war, and gold. Have you a plan to supply them?"

"I thought to hear your esteemed opinion first, sire, and that of this Council."

"In other words, no, you have no plans to supply the resources necessary." Iroh heard the sly smile in Ozai's voice. "Meaning more taxation, and more recruits. How will the commons react, I wonder?"

Iroh's heart froze as the room fell still. _Don't you dare,_ he thought, disguising his glare as an intent look at the Firelord's shadowy silhouette. _Don't you dare, brother..._

"We have seen recently," Ozai continued, "that even the lowliest cannot be pressed indefinitely without some... backlash. That same incident may have made others bold, and my reports tell me they seem quite excited, even agitated."

Iroh clenched his fists in his lap, and looked down hard at the floor trying to concentrate on the way the reflected flames danced on the glossy wood. It was difficult when he was shaking with rage.

"So tell me, General Shu." The Firelord's voice went on. "Are you willing to risk domestic instability on these new acquisitions? Or," he almost purred, "do you think the elite of this Nation should contribute their part to the war effort?"

Iroh clenched his eyes shut; it was all he could do to stop himself from standing up and shouting at Ozai. How could his brother use the nobility's fear of Zuko to play them off the commons? Knowing how much more dangerous he made Zuko's situation, especially when he was so far from home?

So focused was he on controlling himself that he hardly knew it when the meeting was over. He had heard enough to know that the gathered generals had little enough to say to Ozai, other than a few muttered platitudes.

Iroh stood with the others and bowed as the Firelord swept out, the surge of anger burning out to leave only tiredness behind. He thought perhaps Ozai had looked at him before leaving, but he could not be sure since he had not been looking back.

The generals were pensive, gathering in twos and threes to talk, especially with General Shu. Some looked expectantly to Iroh, but at the moment he did not have the presence of mind to speak with them. He was afraid of what he might say.

He could barely breathe in here with the smell of burnt oil gagging him. The outsized, grotesque dragon head that glared at him from behind the dais seemed a thing out of nightmare, one of his nightmares where he failed yet again and his boy was lost to him, lost...

He left the war chamber with hurried steps, sucking in the clearer air in the hallway. He walked without looking where he went, and his feet took him along familiar passageways until he realized he was in the royal family's residential area. He opened the door to his right and stepped out onto a covered walkway, and looked out at the garden with its pond overhung by the old pine and willow trees. Other than the occasional quack of a turtle-duck the place was quiet, the sun bright after the firelight indoors.

He could breathe here. Iroh walked across the soft grass to the edge of the pond, wishing he had brought bread for the turtleducks. He wished these were happier times, when Lu Ten had been by his side and Zuko spent many a happy hour with his mother at this place. He wished for so many things, but that was neither here nor there. He had the present to think of.

_The Order,_ he thought, not for the first time. The Order of the White Lotus could do more for Zuko than he and his old war friends could by themselves, and he had pleaded with them more than once. The elders of the Order were hesitant, however: It was not their place to intervene in internal politics, to work for one faction over another. They worked in the service of the balance, he was told, and not for the interests of a few. If Zuko was the prince who could heal the rift in the world, they would know, they told him. There would be some sign of so momentous a destiny.

The hidebound old fools! The anger flared up again. Why were they so blind, unable to share the certainty he felt in his gut? He had told them of Zuko's bloodline, and they were unmoved; he had a sister of the same line who might well be the one. (Iroh had laughed bitterly at the thought.) He had told them of the boy's generous spirit, and gotten nowhere. There were plenty of gentle children in this world. They didn't understand, this was his nephew. He could not fail the boy, not again.

Iroh took a deep breath and brought himself back to a state of calm. And this was precisely why the Order could not trust him on this matter: He was too close to the situation_. _If only there were some sign, he thought fervently. If only there were some way he could convince them to fight for Zuko.

He sighed and sat down by the pond. A baby turtleduck quacked at him before speeding away to hide behind its mother.

He had to accept that he was doing all he could for Zuko, for now. Much depended on Zuko's teacher Master Lu and whether he followed the last request Iroh had given him before their correspondence broke off. Perhaps he was asking too much of the younger man, more than he had a right to.

But he could hope. Iroh would never stop hoping, no matter how many times those hopes were dashed. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths in the sun, meditating on its warmth and light. He felt the corresponding fire in his heart, the passion and dream that would drive him to his dying breath—of seeing Zuko safe again, happy and secure in his destiny.

_This I give back._ He saw again the burnt and crushed bodies before the walls of Ba Sing Se, and Lu Ten's increasingly empty eyes before the end. _I give of myself, small and flawed as I am. It is all I can do._

The turtleducks called to each other in the peace of the garden, and the sun was warm on his head like a forgiving hand. He reflected upon its all-encompassing life, ever with him even in his darkest moments, and allowed himself a stirring of quiet joy.

* * *

_Next: Master Lu and Shun argue, Azula is spied upon, and a boy has better things to do than homework._


	19. Chapter 9: Excursions 1 of 3

**Apologies for my long procrastination; I had a hell of a sequencing and plotting problem on my hands, and it turns out not doing any wo****rk**** and wishing very hard that it were done will not, in fact, get anything done. (There go half my life strategies.) I cannot thank my thorough and skilled be****ta-reader Amy Raine enough; the prose is so much smoother and the whole thing makes a lot more sense thanks to her. The delay**** was**** entirely my fault; I sat on****the beta-read file way too long before I forced myself to**** sit down and**** work.**

**I also thank reviewers**** amanda91, ArrayePL, cm27815, FairLadyZ2005, Fehize, ForeverRainingFire, Isis the Sphinx, Mira, Stingmon, and Vercigetorix1234**** for ****your kind comments**** and ****very helpful ****criticism.**** You encouraged me to stick with the story and actually write, and you're helping me become a better writer, too. :)**

**This chapter has been divided into ****three**** parts due to its Ridiculous Length, which has always been a problem and left me feeling like a bit of a hypocrite because I know I don't have the patience to read something so long online in one go.**** All the more reason to be grateful to my readers for sticking with this monster.**

**The timeline here ****is a bit confusing and I go out of order, so I've ****put in dates using the same calendar system as my other current story, ****_Everybody Loves Ty Lee._****The three Moons of ****Earth correspond to spring,**** Fire to summer, Air to ****fall****, and Water to winter. ****First Moon of Fire (火一月 ****huo yi yue) is early summer, roughly May.**** The w****hole story takes place ****during**** the fifth or sixth year of the reign of Firelord Ozai.**

**I've also made a map of the locations in this story; it's in my LiveJournal, linked on my profile. Hopefully that makes things less confusing.**

* * *

******Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 9: Excursions (Part 1 of 3)**

* * *

以力服人者 非心服也 力不贍也

Those who follow power follow not from the heart, but from fear.

以德服人者 中心悅而誠服也

Those who follow virtue follow from the heart and do so gladly.

孟子

Mengzi

* * *

**First moon of Fire, Day 3**

It was a lonely land, ruggedly beautiful. Their campsite was in the foothills of the mountain range that loomed to the north, not far from the port city to the southeast but cut off from the city by the hilly lands in between. The sea crashed and roared in the distance beyond a strip of sandy beach.

Guards milled about at the foot of wooded hills, some clearing away vegetation and digging trenches while others set up tents. Master Lu sat on a rock amid the activity, straight-backed and dignified though his gold-and-maroon robes were somewhat the worse for wear. Shun stood before him, reporting on the proceedings, while Zuko sat at the edge of the camp idly teasing his wingcat with a twig.

"The ship has sustained damage in the storm, and will require repairs at the nearest port," said Shun. "We will set up camp here tonight, and acquire provisions at the city."

"So we will need a party to go into the city," said Master Lu, gazing out at the sea to the south.

Shun nodded. "We will have to decide whether to wait for the ship to be repaired or leave it in port." The wind off the sea blew his hair into his face, and he brushed it away with his fingers.

"Striking northward on land has dangers of its own, with such a small guard detail." The Master of Laws and Decrees furrowed his brows. "And we do not have the money for another ship."

"Unless we declare ourselves to be Prince Zuko's party, sir." Shun pointed out.

"An action that will expose his location." Master Lu sighed, placing his hands on his knees. "I like it not."

"If you desire more security, you could contact the nearest imperial garrison."

"Do you recall what happened the last time we did so?" Master Lu retorted, his voice low. He looked over at Zuko, who ducked and hid his twig as Shao Mei flew at his head. Shun followed his gaze.

"The Fire Palace, then," said Shun, looking back at Master Lu. "We should report our position now that we are on the mainland."

Master Lu said nothing for a moment, closing his eyes in contemplation. "Walk with me, Shun," he said at last, standing. "I would speak with you alone."

Shun frowned, checked to see that Zuko had guards keeping an eye on him, then followed Lu from the campsite toward the open stretch of land that led to the beach. The wind blew in from the sea, cool despite the season and salty, blowing their hair and robes.

"Shun." Master Lu turned to face the swordsman once they were some way from the camp. "I do not believe it the best course of action to report our accurate location to the Palace."

Shun stood looking at him for a moment, the wind tossing his long hair away from a face still young yet worn with care. "What are you saying, sir?"

"I am saying..." Lu hesitated. "I plan to tell the Fire Palace that we are at Kahan Point at Taga."

"But... we are at many leagues south and east of Taga, at..." Shun trailed off, dark eyes fixed on the other man's face. "You plan to lie to the Firelord." His tone was not accusatory; it did not have to be, for the words were themselves an accusation.

Master Lu opened his mouth as if to protest, then closed it. After a moment he said calmly: "Yes, I will." He met the guardsman's eyes. "To protect Prince Zuko."

"That is insane," Shun growled, then caught himself. "Forgive me, Master Lu, but how can you possibly protect the prince by giving false information to his father?"

"It is not the Firelord that I wish to misdirect," said Master Lu, his voice rising slightly before he lowered it again. "You do recall what happened at the island of Baizen. It was an imperial garrison we contacted there, and the result was an attempted ambush."

"It- that-" Shun shook his head hard. "That may have been for any number of reasons. Perhaps it was not the garrison at all." He pushed on despite Lu's politely veiled skepticism. "Even if it was the garrison, Baizen is far from the Royal City. It may have been under the sway of men who wish harm on the Prince."

"Do you believe the Royal City very different, Shun?" Master Lu's voice was low, yet pointed. "He has far more powerful rivals and enemies there."

Shun stared at him for a moment, his mouth opening then closing. Finally he set his teeth and ground out: "I cannot agree to this. How will we protect the Prince when none knows he is here?"

Master Lu was silent for a moment as he gauged the younger man, a distance in his eyes that had not been there before. "I don't understand," he said carefully. "I thought you would agree with me, that we can trust very few with Prince Zuko's location."

"We were not speaking about the Fire Palace at that time!" Shun's normally soft voice was almost a shout, startling Master Lu.

"Shun, are you all right?" The Master of Laws and Decrees looked at his colleague with real concern now. Shun heaved a breath and pressed his hands to his eyes, rubbing them hard.

"Forgive me," he said, his voice coming in a rough rasp. "I have been under... some strain, these past days."

"Which is entirely understandable," Master Lu said quickly. "I should not have added to it."

Shun shook his head, but Master Lu went on: "We are in a well-protected location, and our whereabouts are unknown." He tucked his hands into his sleeves and looked at the beach in the distance. "The worst we may fear are common bandits, and we are too numerous to be a very tempting target." He turned back to Shun, his robes and wisps of his hair that had escaped his topknot fluttering in the wind. "Put your mind to rest, Shun. You have protected the Prince well, and will continue to do so."

"Thank you." Shun spoke stiffly, but inclined his head in respect.

"We should return," said Master Lu, and turned away. Shun followed without a word, at a little more distance than before. The wind blew in their faces shifting direction from landward to seaward as the afternoon waned and cooled.

* * *

He could not think, and he could not sit. He felt at every moment that something nameless and formless stalked him, ready to grasp him in gleaming teeth and sharp claws to drag him down to the void below.

Yet it had a form, of course, or at least a face: A sweet-faced young girl with eyes of deep amber fire, her voice going in a heartbeat from a simpering twitter to a hungry snarl.

He stood at the edge of the campsite behind a copse of trees, his hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly. He was vaguely aware that dusk was falling and that they were preparing for the evening meal, but instead of the scene before him he saw the burning eyes that had promised him his personal hell: not one of scorching fire, but of suffocating earth.

He had fed her nothing, no choice snippets dripping blood and juices during all this tumultuous journey. He had some excuse, for his hawk had been in use, or been kept with them while they saved its service for later. But she was getting impatient. Hungry.

She had made that impatience known through the messenger hawk, when she sent him the emblem of his old regiment with the sigil of the flowering tree. What would she do next? His heart raced at the thought as he watched, unseeing, the guards bend fire into banks of earth to minimize the smoke and the sight of flames in the night's cooking. His frantic thoughts spun in place as he wondered, again and again: What next, if he gave her nothing?

Leave, screamed a part of him. Run, as he had run before. He thought of the vast expanse of wild land all around, and a plan was already hatching in his head. He would leave camp, silently as he had been trained to, perhaps lose himself in the woods. He could make his way to the next port city, days to the west, follow the river. Shuck Shun as easily as a snake sheds its skin and sign on as a guardsman to some ship or caravan.

And then what? He stared at the ground as though trying to pierce through it. Perhaps the fire princess would forget about him, just one of many toys lost or discarded. But what if she did not and scoured the land for him? If she found him she would not be forgiving, and his best hope was that she would order him killed outright. Where would he go—to the Water Tribes who would not welcome him, or the Air Temple ruins where he would make a living in the wild?

As for the Earth Kingdom...he felt the ground close into his chest, his arms, his legs, and recoiled at the very thought. The stench of rotting flesh flooded his nose and the eyes of a dead man stared into his, and he physically gagged. No, was the only coherent thought he could manage. He would not, ever again.

He had nowhere to run, except to the realm of the dead. And perhaps that would not be such an ill thing. He carried his dao at all times; all these years he held the power to end everything swiftly, almost without pain. Perhaps he should have done so long ago, yet some stubbornness or depravity—or both—kept him clinging to this life.

"Where's Shun?" He recognized the voice, and glanced over to see Prince Zuko wipe his brow and look around, the dagger he had been swinging about in his hand. Shun had recognized the craftsmanship from the start; an Earth Kingdom weapon.

"Keeping watch, no doubt," said Master Lu, at the same time the boy Khoujin paused in his bending to say, "Skulking around." Lu gave the boy a stern look, at which he gave a sly grin and went back to building up the fire in his allotted earthen stove.

"Skulking and keeping watch, got it." The fire prince sheathed his dagger and sat down on a rock, looking up and calling to his wingcat who perched on a branch. When Shao Mei did glide down to him, though, she ended up landing on his face and he flailed about to the amusement of the camp, trying to detach the cat and looking as though his head had sprouted wings.

Shun quelled the twitching at the corner of his lips. He had no right to smile at the prince's antics, no right to act as though he were part of the group. If he had any conscience left he would have gone a long time ago.

Yet his feet moved as though drawn to a lodestone, and he walked out of the trees almost in a trance. He bent to grab the yowling animal by the scruff of the neck, and lifted her off the prince as he propped her back feet on his other hand. She went immediately limp and docile in his hands, as she would have when her mother carried her thus as a kitten. A memory of safety, of giving in.

Zuko lowered the arm he had raised to protect his face, the gaze he shot his wingcat half laughing and half irritated. "Thanks again," he said. "You really are a match for my cat."

Looking down at him, Shun was once again reminded that he had no right to wear the face he did, of a trusted guardsman and companion. He had no right to be Shun.

"Flying still frightens her," he murmured, going down on one knee to put the animal on the ground. She padded a few paces from him and started licking her paw, her back primly turned to him. "She does not know how to land sometimes, or where to go." He stood slowly, not feeling quite real. "She does not know what she struggles with," he whispered.

"Um, sure," said the prince, sounding anything but sure. "Listen," he went on in a lower voice. "I was wondering if you help me with something."

"I'm afraid he has something to help me with, first." Master Lu, came up behind the prince, and Shun felt himself tense. "You should go practice your firebending, Prince Zuko. Perhaps help with the cooking fires." He shook his head disapprovingly. "You have been disgracefully neglectful of your training these past days."

Zuko mumbled something evasive and resentful as he slunk away. Shun watched him go, then turned to the Master of Laws and Decrees. He felt the slight tension between them from the earlier conversation, a subtle push that created space in between.

Master Lu took a scroll from his sleeve. "A missive to the Fire Palace," he said, not quite meeting Shun's eye as he handed it over. "I would like it sent at once."

"So they can have news of our whereabouts," said Shun, quietly bitter. He knew that Lu did not deserve it, and somehow that knowledge made it all the more unbearable. He had no one to blame but himself for his false faces, his conscience that could never be unclouded.

The other man said nothing, and Shun turned away from him to whistle for his hawk. The answering call came sharp and shrill over the hilly land, and soon a darker shadow against the dusky sky circled down to him. The sleek, streamlined bird's weight was heavy and final on his raised arm.

He stroked the hawk's neck and murmured to her as he fed her bits of bloody meat from the oilskin-wrapped package at his belt, then slid the scroll into the message cylinder on her back. Master Lu was momentarily distracted when an attendant came up to ask a question; seeing his chance, Shun slipped a second scrap of paper with Master Lu's letter. His hand was unsteady and clumsy as he stroked the hawk's neck again, and she shook her head in irritation. He closed the cylinder, and hesitated a heartbeat.

Having answered the question, Master Lu turned back to him with an expectant look. Shun's arm trembled under the weight of the messenger hawk as he asked: "Anything else, before..." He knew not what he was asking. Perhaps any excuse to open the cylinder again, undo what he was about to do.

But he also recognized the lie he told himself. He would not take the scrap of paper out, the coded message that told their true location, because he could see no other way. Because he still clung to his worthless life. Because the princess was hungry, and this might keep her sated enough to lose interest in him, for a while. The hawk clicked her blood-spotted beak, impatient to take to air.

Master Lu silently shook his head, denying him reprieve. Shun lowered his arm and then flung it up, letting the hawk fly with her two letters. One he had hoped not to send, would not have ___had_to send if only Lu had listened to reason and reported their true location—but no. That was an excuse, and he knew it. And in the knowing a little more of him was crushed beneath a careless heel, breaking silently beyond repair.

It could not be so bad, he thought almost desperately as he watched the bird climb the air high into the evening sky. The girl was Prince Zuko's sister, what harm could she mean to him? And there was security in informing the Fire Palace of their true whereabouts; it was a reasonable thing to do. It was what he told himself, over and over again as the hawk flew.


	20. Chapter 9: Excursions 2 of 3

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 9: Excursions (Part 2 of 3)**

* * *

**First moon of Fire, Day 6**

Tools and gadgets crammed the shelves and floors of the cluttered little shop, rows and rows of lathes and perforators, drills, chisels, and more crowding every available space. Spoked wheels and steel edges gleamed in the sunlight that streamed in from glass windows high on the walls.

The man glared at the room at large from his place above the door, eyes sharp under the five-pointed flame crown and broad, smooth forehead. His was a handsome face in early middle age, that of a man at the height of his power and well aware of it. The faux gilt frame needed dusting and the paper was starting to flake a bit, but the portrait of Firelord Ozai was still a formidable presence, a reminder of his long-reaching influence.

The young woman behind the counter seemed oblivious of her worshipful sovereign's gaze as she sat engrossed in a thick book, a half-assembled model engine at her elbow. Her slightly asymmetric face, framed by wavy chin-length hair, gave the impression of impatience even when expressionless as it currently was. Her right eyebrow seemed perpetually raised in a sardonic question, and her wide, expressive mouth was in a thin line of concentration.

She did not raise her head when a bell tinkled at the door as it opened. A long wedge of sunlight glinted off the frame of the Firelord's portrait and pushed its way into the store. Two men walked in from the street, talking.

"I'm telling you, it's a shame he's not stopping by the city," said an old man with the rangy muscles of a craftsman, various tools in the pockets of his carpenter's apron. "Haishan his own estate and everything! Hullo, Yenzi."

"Hello, Jiang," said the girl at the counter, not looking up from her book.

"I heard at the tavern he's been spotted to the east at Baizen, but after that... nothing," said Jiang's younger companion, his bare arms bulging with muscle as he examined a display of hammers. "Maybe something's happened to him," he went on, with a note of anxiety.

"To a Prince of the Realm? Impossible!" exclaimed the carpenter. Yenzi peeked up from her book, then lowered her eyes to the pages again. "Why, I heard they carried him through the streets at Azhoran!"

"Well, some like what he's done there—and some don't," said the younger man, lowering his voice with a surreptitious glance at the framed picture above the door. "Maybe we shouldn't be talking too much about it."

Jiang scoffed at him. "Why don't you shut up the rest of the city then? Or the Nation, for that matter. Yenzi," he called, "where's that steam-powered hacksaw?"

"Dad's got it out in the shed." The girl looked up. "Why? You have a big job?"

The carpenter nodded. "A ship job, no less! You don't see a lot of these graceful sloops nowadays, not with the metal monsters taking over everything." He sighed in contentment. "She's in sad shape from a storm, but I'll have her up and sailing in no time."

"They paid half in advance," his muscled companion told Yenzi in a stage whisper. "That's his excuse to get his dream contraption." He picked up a chisel, tried its weight in his hand, and brought it and several more of varying sizes over to the counter. The carpenter followed behind and peered at the book laid open on the counter.

" 'Basics of Metalwork,' " he read aloud as Yenzi took his friend's silver Flames and handed back two copper Sparks. He frowned sternly at her, bushy eyebrows bristling. "You still on about this? Hasn't anyone told you engineering is no work for girls?"

"Well I hear carpentry's no profession for frail old men, but you seem to get by," Yenzi retorted, snatching the book and hugging it to herself as she sat back down.

They scowled at each other over the counter. Then Yenzi snorted with laughter first and they sniggered at each other while the carpenter's friend shook his head.

"So your old man's in the shed?" Jiang the carpenter made to go, still chuckling. "Where's your mother?"

"Out to market," replied Yenzi. "She should be back in about-" the bell tinkled again as the door opened, "-now."

Shiri, all smiles and dimples, greeted the men on her way in and thanked them graciously when they insisted on helping her with her bags. After a bustle, the customers left, the sound of the bell fading away after the door closed. Shiri went up to the living quarters above the store to put the groceries away, and Yenzi poured out sunflower seeds and raisins into a small bowl before she returned to her book. A page turned in the silence while she munched on the snack.

"Any customers while I was gone?" Shiri came back down to the store and took a handful of seeds.

"A few," said Yenzi. "Old Jiang is going to try and bankrupt us by bargaining Dad down to the bone on a hacksaw. His stonesmith friend bought chisels. I've sold a hammer, a knife, a lathe..."

"Very good, dear," said Shiri, though she seemed distracted. She ate the sunflower seeds one by one out of her palm, thinking. At last, unable to hold it in any longer, she burst out with: "Oh honey, I've met the most intriguing young man at the market!"

Yenzi raised her right eyebrow even higher, then turned another page in her book. "Whoever he is, he'd better stop being intriguing before Dad finds out."

"What? Oh, Yenzi." Shiri laughed merrily. "I didn't mean Though..." she smiled wickedly. "I do like the idea of your father getting jealous."

"Jealous? I bet he'd fight an Agni Kai for you."

"Honey, your father's not a firebender."

"He still would."

"Do you think so?" Shiri smiled dreamily.

Yenzi sighed. "You were saying? About this non-adulterously intriguing young man?"

"Oh, Yenzi," her mother said again, eating the last of the seeds out of her hand and then wiping it on her skirt. "Anyway, he was looking for citrus fruits for his pregnant wife, and apparently she's a little... picky. I helped him out. I remember what it was like for me when I had you."

"Yeah." Yenzi grimaced. "I'd want to throw up, too, if I had a parasite in my uterus."

Shiri chuckled and bent over the girl to kiss the top of her head. "And how beautiful mine grew up to be."

"So what's so interesting about that guy?" asked Yenzi, smiling despite herself. "He sounds boring to me."

"Well, we started talking and—I believe he said one or two things he wasn't supposed to." Shiri absently mussed her daughter's hair, looking into the distance. "I believe," she continued, "that he's here with the Prince."

"What, Prince Zuko?" Yenzi twisted around to look up at her mother. "In the city?"

"Not here. Camping in the outskirts, for whatever reason." Shiri lowered her voice. "He's not far, evidently."

"So what?" Yenzi shrugged. "Everybody's talking about this prince like he's the second coming of Agni. I don't get it."

"He did save a village from starvation, honey, if the stories are true." Shiri walked over to a display of drills and started counting them under her breath.

"That's the part I don't get." Yenzi put a receipt in her book to mark her place, then closed it and stretched. "What's a bunch of dirt farmers have to do with us? I just don't think he should rock the boat like that." She propped her chin on a hand, an edge in her voice. "Things are hard enough already."

"Maybe that's why he did it," her mother said quietly. "Because he cares about our troubles."

"Oh please, Mom." Yenzi waved a dismissive hand as she stood. She went to a display rack and started rearranging the wares. "Like people like him care about people like us."

Shiri looked at her daughter in profile, and gave her a fond smile. She was about to speak again when the door burst open with a sudden, frantic tinkle of bells, the updraft rocking the portrait of Firelord Ozai. "Hi Mom! Hi Yenzi!"

"Hey Squirt." Yenzi ruffled her brother's hair as he hurried in, slinging his oversized bookbag from his shoulders.

"And how's my handsome little man?" Shiri held Lijin tight for a moment as he threw himself into her arms.

"D'you hear, Mom, Yenzi?" Lijin squirmed excitedly out of her embrace. "The Dragon Prince is here! Or," he said, abruptly lowering his voice to a whisper, "really, really close. It's super secret."

"It... seems to be quite the secret," said Shiri, her wry gaze meeting her daughter's over Lijin's head.

"Some of the kids at school are going to go look for him," Lijin went on. "Can I go, Mom?" His voice took on a wheedling tone as he looked up at his mother, his brown eyes huge and round.

"Lijin." Shiri gently smoothed down her son's hair. "Would the Dragon Prince want you to go traipsing around the countryside instead of doing your homework?"

"Ummm..." Lijin thought about that for a moment.

"I thought not." Shiri seized her advantage as she bustled her son to the door at the back of the shop. "Now go wash up, dear, and get started on your homework. I'll be right up with snacks." She all but pushed him through the door and closed it before he could protest. After a moment, dejected footsteps trudged up the stairs on the other side.

Shiri sighed and sat down heavily at the counter. "I knew it was a mistake, telling him about the Dragon King," she complained. "Now he's got his head in the clouds, and I don't doubt his friends are the same."

"They're kids, Mom," said Yenzi as she came to stand by her mother. "How often would they get to meet a prince of the blood?"

"I don't want him or his friends out there anyway, it feels like rain." Shiri brought her hand up to a shoulder and started massaging it. "I tell you, daughter, I'm too old to be chasing after energetic little boys."

"You're not old." Yenzi positioned herself behind Shiri's chair to massage her shoulders, prompting a sigh of contentment from her mother. "And you've got me to help you."

"The best daughter in the world." Shiri smiled, relaxing as Yenzi kneaded the tense muscles. "Put a little heat in it, child, that helps on days when it's going to rain."

Yenzi closed her eyes and let out a deep breath, and presently the air around her hands started shimmering with heat. Shiri's face took on a look of supreme contentment as the warmth sank into her shoulders.

Just then an explosive shook the little store, rattling the displays and setting the portrait over the door askew. Sparks burst from Yenzi's hands as she started and looked toward the door, and her mother yelped. Yenzi frantically slapped out the beginnings of flame from her mother's blouse as a hiss of steam filled the air outside amidst the alarmed shouts of men.

"It's coming from the shed!" Shiri was already on her feet even as Yenzi got the last of the tiny flames.

"Is it a damn gasket again?" Yenzi followed her mother to the door, checking Shiri's shoulders to make sure she wasn't on fire.

"Don't swear, Yenzi," Shiri said distractedly as she flung the door open and ran outside, Yenzi hot on her heels. "What is going on?" Shiri shouted, her voice coming muffled as the door slammed closed with a tinkle of bells. Firelord Ozai's portrait finally released its tenuous hold and fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Presently footfalls sounded on the stairs down from the residence, and Lijin opened the door to glance around the empty store. He helped himself to the seeds and raisins on the counter as he listened to the commotion outside. His eyes lit up; he went to the door and opened it a crack, cringing at the tinkle of the bells. He opened the door very slowly, and looked outside. Stepping over the fallen portrait, he slipped one foot out the door, then another, then the rest of him. The door closed behind him with hardly a sound.


	21. Chapter 9: Excursions 3 of 3

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 9: Excursions (Part 3 of 3)**

* * *

Notes: The part with Shiri having a different family name than her husband and kids: In China, which is one of the influences for Fire Nation culture, and also in my native Korea, a woman does not change her name when she marries. (If you do know a woman from these cultures going by her husband's name, either they already happen have the same last name or she's doing as the Romans do.) So Shiri's family name, which she got from her father, is An, which she did not change when she married. Her husband's family name is Ti, and this was given to their children.

The Hour of the Ox is actually a two-hour span from one o'clock in the morning to three o'clock. Think of it as about two in the morning. Hey, twenty-four hours in the day and only twelve animals in the zodiac, you've got to make do somehow.

* * *

Lu Shi was not a happy man as he and his party left the city of Haishan to head back to camp with their provisions. The late afternoon was hot and humid, with a wet breeze rustling the trees along the road that told him there might be rain, perhaps even a storm later in the day. He was eager to return to camp before it struck, though of course staying in the city would have been the pleasanter option. But that was not the cause of his unease.

He kept thinking of the moment the day before when he had slipped away from the main party to walk into a textiles shop in the city looking for Shang Chi, a man he had never met before. He had not truly believed he would go through with it, despite rehearsing this moment over and over in his head, going over every step, every action.

"I await a shipment of silk from Tou San," he had told Shang when the master of the shop came out front, speaking the phrase he had been directed to say. It still seemed surreal days later that he had gone through with it, met with Shang and spoken those words.

But how could he have done otherwise, when the Dragon of the West himself had asked it of him - not as an order but as a request, as though to a peer or a friend?

the letter he received back in Azhoran had read.

_I am well aware I have no right to ask this of you,_ the letter he received back in Azhoran had read. _I ask you to pardon my presumption in even burdening you with the request, but for my nephew's sake I must ask even should you rebuff me, as you are fully entitled to do._

"Ah yes, with the rare lotus patterns." At the textile shop amid the colors and patterns and the clean, oppressive smell of cloth, Shang's face had been carefully and politely blank, his eyes shrewd. "I am afraid the weather may delay the shipment, perhaps by a month."

_But if you can find it in your heart to do this for myself and my nephew, Master Lu, I will be forever in your debt._

"I understand the rainstorms are quite severe." Lu Shi had agreed, and had drawn from his sleeve a piece of folded paper that felt strangely heavy in his hand.

_I do not believe it is the wisest course of action to report Prince Zuko's location to the Fire Palace. He has powerful enemies and rivals here that the information cannot be kept from. But, _and here the brush-strokes had wavered, alternately hesitant and rushed as though the writer pushed himself forward despite his own reluctance. _I have at my __disposal a network of contacts through which we may communicate securely._

"Perhaps an alternate route could be arranged." Lu and Shang's eyes had met in a moment of perfect understanding as Lu Shi, royal tutor to Prince Zuko, handed the Prince's true location to a stranger. "Would you have this sent to the ship's captain?"

_Again, I must beg your forgiveness in asking such a favor of you at all. I would never have so imposed on you if I did not believe that my nephew is in danger. If you do accede to my request, below is a list of establishments you can visit in the major cities along the coastal mainland, and the words they will recognize..._

Back on the road in the late afternoon sun Lu took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to calm himself at the mere memory of what he had done. What if Prince Iroh was wrong about Prince Zuko being safer if the Fire Palace did not know where he was? Worse, what if the letter had been a forgery, not written by the Prince at all? Lu would have lied to the Firelord and leaked Prince Zuko's information for nothing. Perhaps Shun had been right that it was insane. The usually even-tempered man's reaction to even the part of the plan he knew had been so vehement it had given the Master of Laws and Decrees pause, almost leading him to abandon the whole plan.

But try as he might to disregard Iroh's concern, Lu had found he could not. Nor could he dismiss the uncle's concern for his nephew; and the heartfelt sentiment, as much as the consistent calligraphy and writing style that had convinced him the writing was genuine, had finally convinced him.

And perhaps had damned him; he could not ignore the possibility. Not just himself, either, but Nanhua and Sanno and Zian, their little family each dearer to him than breathing. His hands shook belatedly at the reins of his rhino, even as he moved unconsciously in time with the beast's ambling rhythm. I'm sorry, he thought to each in turn, his wife and his children. _Forgive me for putting you in danger this way._

He had done the unthinkable, but it had been done. Even if the worst came to worst, he thought, Nanhua would understand. And hopefully General Iroh would take care of his family and the consequences would be Lu's alone to bear. It was the best he could hope for, in these uncertain times.

So intent he was on his own thoughts that he did not notice the people ahead on the road, nor their voices, until he heard the murmurings of his own retinue. He shook himself and followed their gaze to the small group of men and women on the road, talking worriedly among themselves and occasionally calling out names like "Lijin" or "Zhimao." Curious in spite of himself, he quickened the pace of his animal to meet them; the rest of the retinue did the same.

Lu had to admit he was concerned. These men and women were on the road that would pass close to Prince Zuko's location, and while the group looked harmless enough—tradesmen and perhaps wives and daughters, from the look of them—he misliked the idea of the Prince's position being exposed.

"-should split up to look for them," a stout, broad-shouldered man was telling his companions. The woman who stood with him, attractive in a plump and matronly way, grabbed the man's muscled arm and shook her head.

"We'll never cover the whole area by ourselves," she said to what must be her husband from the easy intimacy of the touch. "We should go back, get more people-"

"But we don't have time before the rain-"

Having drawn close, Lu was about to call to them, ask what was the matter when a startled and happy exclamation sounded among the guards. The young man Khoujin broke ranks to stride toward the little group on the road, specifically the woman.

"Madam An? Didn't we meet earlier?"

The woman turned around at those words, looking startled - then her face relaxed into a crinkled smile. "Why, it's you! Bought any good fruit, young man?"

"Oh, absolutely. I've got a bunch... over there." The newly-minted guardsman gestured sheepishly back at a cart. "But what brings you out of the city? Sky doesn't look so good." He looked uneasily to the western sky where dark clouds were gathered.

"I know, it's just..." Madam An wrung her dimpled hands in distress. "It's my son," she said miserably. "He ran off with his friends when a da- a gasket blew. We think they left the city this way, but now we've lost track."

"And there's going to be rain soon," said a small, thin woman, perhaps one of the other mothers.

"Have you seen three little boys pass by?" Madam An asked hopefully. "They're ten years old, and two of them would have been wearing school uniforms." A quick poll of the retinue revealed they had not seen the boys, and the parents' faces fell.

Lu slid off the saddle, taking brief pleasure in the fact that he had not landed on his face like some other occasions he could name. "Did they indicate where they might be going?" He asked the little group. They looked to each other, nervous.

"They went to find Prince Zuko," the answer came suddenly from the back of the group. The speaker was a girl in her late teens, her face slightly belligerent as she crossed her arms. Under thick eyebrows, one raised above the other, her eyes were uncomfortably piercing as she watched the slight murmur pass through the retinue even while they tried to stay stoic. "The 'Dragon Prince.' We don't think the kids actually know his location - no one does."

"Well then," Lu said quickly, "we have trained guards here and we can help you." He did not like the idea of more people coming out of the city and possibly stumbling onto the campsite. Besides, it was true there were not many hours before it started raining, at sunset perhaps, and the thought of those little boys caught in the dark and in the weather out here was intolerable.

"Oh, thank you." Madam An pressed a hand to her chest. "An Shiri, by the way. This is my husband, Tien Shou," the broad-shouldered man nodded to him, "and my daughter Yenzi." Hasty introductions were made all around while the guardsmen organized themselves, laying out grids and communication lines.

"I am Lu Shi, Madam." He gave their cover story about being part of a caravan, on their way to rejoin the main band. He found himself conscious of the girl Yenzi's deeply suspicious look, however, and wondered if she knew—if they all knew, but were just too polite to show it. _I am becoming paranoid,_ he told himself.

He elected to return to base camp along with the baggage and the other non-combatant members of the party, a decision he felt somewhat guilty about until he was assured he would be entirely useless in the search. Besides, someone had to inform the Prince and others at the camp why the retinue would be late. Master Lu gave his ride over for use in the search and trundled back to camp among sacks of grain and a bizarrely large assortment of citrus fruits, munching on an orange and watching the clouds darken in the western sky.

* * *

**First moon of Fire, Day 5**

"...And there he was, at the lady's house the same hour he was to be at the hunt!" The laughter of the men took on a raucous edge, reverberating in the close space filled with glimmering lamps and wine-tinted breaths. Strings keened out a piercing tune in the background as silk-robed men sat around the table, pouring each other drinks into small, exquisitely painted porcelain cups.

"Perhaps the gentleman can be in many places at once," said Rang Han, third son of Lord Rang, a great landholder and fixture at the court. He was a young, slender man who let most of his sleek black hair flow down his back with the top done up in a knot, the black of his hair and robe forming an eerie contrast with his pale, smooth skin. His words slurred slightly as he leaned indulgently to one side, but his pale, almost colorless eyes were penetrating against his narrow and fine-boned face. "It would not be unheard of."

"Is his mother not a descendant of Firelord Sozin's cousin?" said a general, smirking. "The ability may run in the Firelord's line."

"Would that I could do the same," lamented a middle-aged lord. "I would find it most useful." Someone ribbed him with a veiled reference to being with his wife and mistress at the same time, and there was more laughter.

"You should make the inquiry to Prince Zuko," said Rang Han, in a seemingly lazy and offhand way that suited his reputation as a playboy and professional gadfly—yet the words subtly but instantly charged the atmosphere; the men sat up straighter, and eyes glittered as each looked to a fellow, watching reactions, holding silent conversations. "He appears," the young man smiled knowingly into his cup, "to be everywhere at once these days."

"And nowhere he's supposed to be," someone else grumbled. The men looked uneasy; they all knew about the letter sent by Prince Zuko, and also knew local spies had confirmed he was nowhere in the location.

"And soon enough," said a sour voice. "in all our estates at the same time to rouse the rabble." Shoulders tensed, and the many darting eyes grew quicker even as men gave half-laughs and drank from their cups.

"There's no need to be uncouth," murmured Lieutenant Zhao, who half smiled as he raised his cup to his lips. He could well guess the reason he had been invited to this "friendly gathering, Zhao—nothing formal" of some of the highest ranking Fire Nation elite. He listened with polite indifference to the complaints about how the Prince's whereabouts were impossible to determine. Each time someone cast a surreptitious glance his way, it was difficult to restrain a knowing smile.

And then the tipping point came, as he knew it would, Tired of the coy little hints that drew no response, one finally mentioned the rumor that Princess Azula knew her brother's whereabouts. Zhao, who had spread the rumors at her behest, expressed mild surprise. Then came the next moment he had been waiting for: "Zhao," said the military man who leaned over to fill his cup, "you're close to the Princess. Does she know where her brother is?"

The air tensed and shifted with a sense that the stakes were getting higher, and things were moving beyond some point of no return. Zhao raised his cup and drained it at once, letting them wait a few breathless seconds. "Now why would you ask that?" He wiped his lips with the back of a hand. "Eager to give him a greeting fitting for his stature and accomplishments, perhaps?" His gaze was half mocking, half challenging as he scanned the faces around the table.

"I imagine we all are," drawled Rang Han. His strangely light eyes met Zhao's directly. "Some more than others."

"I never realized you were so... loyal," said Zhao. "Finally accepting that there is a world outside your mirror?"

"Never," laughed the young man, "nor outside my drinking cup." He raised a bottle of rice wine to Zhao. "May I?"

The lieutenant obligingly raised his cup, and Rang Han rose from his nearly sprawled position to his knees to pour. He leaned close to Zhao as he did, his hair falling forward to curtain the movement of his lips and the sound of his voice.

"The risk for her will be minimal," Rang Han whispered in Zhao's ear, no trace of slurring in his voice, "if the information is stolen from her."

Zhao's cup shook the least fraction, though his expression held steady in an amused grin. He raised his full cup; the younger man did the same, and they both threw their heads back to drain their drinks.

"There'll be little use in asking the Princess anything, gentlemen." Zhao put down his cup with a loud and final click. "Somehow I am certain some of the more... loyal... among you have already spoken to her and been rebuffed. Which is why you ask it of me." He found his answer in the evasive eyes of those around him, and nodded to himself. "I regret to inform you," he went on, "that I know nothing of Prince Zuko's whereabouts."

"Then could you ask the Princess-"

Zhao cut the speaker off with a firm shake of his head. "Her silence is absolute in this matter. Her brother's security is too important." There was a touch of rebuke in his voice, even as a corner of his lips curled in a subtle half-smile; he knew perfectly well what he was seemingly inadvertently giving away here, that Princess Azula knew where her brother was.

"Besides," he continued, "the Princess has gone overnight to the Temple of Agni to pray as the date of her birth approaches. It is well for her to have an excursion, after all the time she has been spending alone in her library." There were pious murmurs of approval all around, while a few faces lit up around the room.

The night started to wind down as more of the Nation's elite grew too drunk to speak coherently or, indeed, to stay awake. Lieutenant Zhao watched, still quite sober, as Rang Han stumbled out drunkenly between two friends. The young man made some remark to the friend supporting him on his left, chancing to look over his shoulder back at Zhao. Their eyes met for the briefest of moments before Rang Han stumbled again, leaning on his friends for balance, and left with them.

Zhao took a thoughtful sip from his cup before he looked away from the door. "A snake," he muttered under his breath. "A dangerous one—and useful." He swirled the remains of the drink in his cup before he flicked his wrist, scattering the glittering droplets onto the remains of food on the table before he, too, rose to retire for the night.

* * *

**First moon of Fire, Day 6**

The next morning, four men bore a gilt palanquin draped with fine red and gold silk into the palace gates. A thin girl stood waiting in the palace yard, yawning. Her tunic and the ankle-length skirt she wore underneath did nothing to hide her awkward lankiness in the rush of early adolescent growth.

The palanquin bearers gently put down their load on the cobblestones, a few feet from where the girl stood with her arms crossed. The silk stirred and a younger, shorter girl dressed in belted tunic and trousers emerged, smirking at the sight of her friend stifling a yawn.

"Princess Azula," the waiting girl said without expression, the dark circles evident against her pale skin.

"Mai," said the Princess, walking up to her. "Had a long night?"

"Long and boring," said Mai, falling into step next to Azula into the east wing of the palace. "Had fun communing with Agni?"

"He sends his regards." Azula waved a dismissive hand. "Ty Lee?"

"She's fast asleep." Mai lowered her voice. "I don't think she saw what I saw."

Something sparked in Azula's eyes as she also lowered her voice. "Wait."

They made their way down the hall to a set of carved double doors, then through them into a room slightly musty with the smell of books. Azula closed the doors behind them, scanned the room and held still for a few seconds concentrating, then turned to Mai.

"You kept watch all night from the alcove, like I said?"

Mai pointed without comment to the dark circles under her eyes.

"Put a little powder on it." Azula shrugged. "You need to sleep less anyway—you're going to become a giant, Mai, and scare away all the boys. Anyway," she leaned toward Mai, her eyes glittering, "what did you see?"

"Hour of the Ox. Dark-clad guy, could have been a servant." Mai toyed with the edge of a sleeve. "He came straight into this library and searched your writing desk. He looked at a couple of things, put everything back and then left. I think he was here about five minutes."

"Did he take anything?" Azula went straight to her writing desk and stared at it a few moments, again in a stillness of concentration.

"Nothing that I could see," said Mai, watching her. "You told us not to intervene or follow, so I just watched. I never got a good look at his face."

Azula looked fixedly at a piece of paper whose corner stuck out from between two books. Very slowly she drew it out, took in a few words at the corner. A wide grin spread across her face.

"Princess?"

Azula pushed the piece of paper back into place and turned calmly to Mai. "Don't speak of this to anyone," she said, "not even to Ty Lee."

"Okay. There's nothing to tell anyway." Mai yawned behind her hand. "Can I go now?"

"Of course." Azula waved her away. "You did a good job, Mai."

Mai bowed and walked out of the library. She flicked a look over her shoulder as she left, shook her head and closed the doors behind her. She left Azula standing alone before her writing desk, her fingers toying with a small white corner of paper that peeked out from the bookshelf.

* * *

_Next: Zuko learns more about his subjects' lives, and words and actions are regretted._


	22. Chapter 10: Flames in the Night 1 of 4

**Chapter 10: Flames in the Night**

* * *

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  
- Third Law of Motion, Sir Isaac Newton

* * *

"Come on, we have to go help them!" Zuko turned away, gesturing briskly with a hand.

"Prince Zuko, that seems unnecessary." Master Lu wondered if it was treason to want to throttle a prince of the blood. No sooner had he reported the situation about the missing boys than Zuko was insisting that the prince himself and the rest of the guards join the search. "The situation is under control, I assure you."

"The more guards join the search, the sooner we find them," Zuko shot back. "Half of them stayed here with me!"

"As they should. Your security-"

"Look, I'll search with Shun." Shun looked up at the sound of his name. "Who would keep me safer?"

While Lu was still trying to form an answer, Zuko looked him in the eye and set his jaw. "I will do everything in my power to make sure these boys are safe," he said with a conviction that told Master Lu he had lost the argument. "They came searching for me, and they're my responsibility."

Shun met Master Lu's eyes, and Lu felt a chill go through him. He did not know why; Shun had served the prince loyally and without a shadow of complaint, and nothing in his background hinted at danger. Besides, the man owed his career to Zuko and to Lu who had advised him; no one from the old Earth Kingdom colonies had ever risen so high in the ranks, or been allowed so close to a member of the royal family.

Lu tried to shake himself out of it. He was being ridiculous; mas he holding the argument from days before against the guardsman?

_Or maybe,_ the thought crept up on him, _you are not so unprejudiced as you think_. Would he feel this way about Zuko going out alone in the wild with Khoujin or Ming, both full subjects of the Fire Nation?

"Very well." He pushed his doubts away to a far corner. "But you will return at the first sign of rain." With the prince so set on the matter, Lu could not fight him without either undermining Prince Zuko's authority or losing the boy—both unacceptable outcomes for what was, at heart, a minor issue. And the prince would be _fine_ with Shun, he told himself.

"All right!" A grin lit up Zuko's face. "Let's gather the guards, Shun. We set out at once." Shun bowed and followed. Watching them go, Lu could not help but smile at the young prince's excitement. Perhaps the boy had been longing for adventure since the events at Tamalan; perhaps he relished the chance for some hero-worship from the boys who had gotten themselves lost on his account. Certainly it would not be an ill thing for him to reconnect to his subjects while keeping within the bounds of the Firelord's orders.

He just hoped they could make it before the rainstorm struck. He looked up at the approaching clouds that obscured the sinking sun, and tried to reason away the foreboding in his heart.

* * *

Zuko and Shun trekked up the wooded hill in the part of the grid they had been assigned, calling the boys' names and watching for any signs of movement. So far they had only managed to scare up squirrel-hares and a foxroe from their hiding places, but were hoping for better visibility once they reached the top of the hill,

They searched in silence other than the occasional call; from time to time Zuko would look to Shun as if to say something, then lost his nerve. Shun, in turn, seemed entirely focused on the search, watching the underbrush and the trees as though he expected the boys—or less friendly parties—to jump out from behind them.

Zuko let out a sigh of relief when they reached a break in the trees and the crest of the hill, wiping at his damp forehead as he reached for his water skin. Shun seemed not to have broken so much as a sweat, and leapt to pull himself onto a rock that jutted out of the ground. He stood on top of it to survey the hilly land and the walls of volcanic mountains beyond them stretching to the north and west, and the sea and the port city to the south and east.

"Do you see anything?" Zuko called up to him, putting his water skin away.

"Your own guards, my prince," Shun replied. He added under his breath: "They always stand out against green."

"The boys should stand out, too." Zuko started hauling himself up the side of the rock, fingers and toes finding cracks and bumps for purchase. "Any sign of them?"

Shun reached down and Zuko took his hand, helping Shun pull him up the rest of the way. "None that I can see," the guardsman answered while Zuko found his footing and looked about, fascinated. "Perhaps they are under a tree canopy."

Zuko frowned. "Or maybe they went in a completely different direction," he said. "Maybe they decided to head to the beach instead."

Shun turned to look at the stretch of rocky sand to the south and shook his head. "Unlikely, The beach here does not seem to be a recreational spot, and the sky looks like rain."

"Yeah... and I don't see anybody there," said Zuko, squinting.

Shun turned north again, scanning the sweep of hills and woods. Zuko walked to the edge of the rock's uneven surface before the guardsman put out a hand to stop him.

"Is that fire?" Zuko pointed at a jet of flame that rose from one of the red dots that was a guard.

"Fire signal." Shun turned his gaze back north. "Two short flares for 'all clear.'"

"But no boys, either." Zuko's shoulders slumped

"No, that would be a different signal." Shun watched two flames going up in another area. "That one is Khoujin; strong but uneven, though he is learning."

"You can tell from the flames?" Zuko lifted his eyebrows with a smile. "You're not a bender, right?"

"I simply watch, my prince." Shun glanced sideways at him before looking away.

"You said they might be under a tree canopy," Zuko turned his gaze to the taller hills further north with their thick covering of trees. "I don't see signal flares in that area."

"It is outside the search grid, I believe." Shun followed the prince's gaze. "It is far from the town, and we can search it if they are not found in the designated search area."

"If I were looking for a hidden camp," Zuko's words came slowly as he worked things out in his head, "I would find a place with a source of water, and some cover." He pointed to the stream that coursed down the hill, disappeared into the woods at its foot, and meandered through the fields below to make its way to the sea. "Those woods, at the foot of the hill. Remember how you and the others considered it for a campsite, then decided to go west to get farther away from the city?"

Shun crouched down to perch at the very edge of the rock. "You are observant." Zuko's face brightened. "But do you think the children could have covered the distance from the city?"

"I don't see why not." Zuko turned to look back at the city, tracing a possible route from there with his eyes. "They probably know the area—maybe better than their parents think they do—and there, right northwest of the city, there's a kind of pass between the hills so they wouldn't have had to do all this climbing like we did."

Shun followed his gaze, frowning in concentration. "The space between the spurs of two hills, and then the old stream bed connect almost like a road, an easy path that heads-"

"Northwest, to the woods." A note of triumph entered Zuko's voice. "They wouldn't have had to trek through the wild, they'd have followed the natural road!"

Shun nodded and stood. "This merits a new search," he said. "Especially if we wish to find them before the rain comes." He looked to the cloud-darkened western sky. "Prince Zuko, here is the sequence of the signal flare for a change in plans: Three bursts, then one sustained-"

Sensing something, he looked over his shoulder to catch sight of Zuko's downcast face. "My prince?"

"I can't." Zuko's gaze darted away the moment he said the words.

Shun blinked. "I am familiar with the signal. I can guide you."

"No. I..." Zuko chewed on his lower lip. "I can't firebend. I haven't been able to, since Tamalan."

"_What?"_ Shun took a step toward Zuko, making Zuko shrink back. "How is this possible? Why would you lose your bending?"

"I don't know!" Zuko spread his hands, his eyebrows drooping and his eyes miserable. "At first I thought I was just tired from doing so much of it—I did sleep for a whole day after. But it's been weeks, and the fire is still gone."

Shun looked away, his eyes flickering about as though looking for an escape route.

"My fire was always... slower, weaker," the words rushed from Zuko now, as though pent up for too long. "Maybe it comes of being a winter baby. But I thought I'd gotten over that. My bending was stronger than ever at Azhoran and I was so sure about what I was doing-"

"I did not hear any of this." Shun cut him off with a slicing gesture of his hand. "I know nothing of it, do you hear?" He turned his back to Zuko to look unseeing at the darkening landscape.

"I thought I could ignore it, too, but I can't," Zuko was quieter now, surer. "I wanted to talk to you about it. If my bending is always going to be unreliable, or if..." he looked down at his feet, "if it never comes back, then I'm going to need some way to defend myself."

"You must speak to your uncle about this, alone," Shun closed his eyes, as though he could block out Zuko's words this way. "No one else. Especially not to me."

"I didn't tell anyone!" said Zuko. "And I will talk to him. In the meantime, though..." he forced the words out. "I need you to teach me the dao. Just in case this happens again, or... or in case it's permanent."

Some of the tension went out of Shun's shoulders as he exhaled. "People will ask questions."

"Not too many." Zuko tried a quavery smile. "Everyone knows I like weapons, even though a bender isn't supposed to waste his time on that sort of thing."

Shun turned to face the prince, just the two of them high above the wilds. "Very well," he said. "I will teach you for as long as you wish me to. Just remember," he went on as Zuko's face lit up, "as long as I teach you I am your teacher. I expect obedience in your training with me."

"I promise, Sifu Shun." Zuko gave a lopsided grin and bowed to his guardsman; Shun took a sharp breath as though struck, then brought his hands up in the flame sign and bowed back.

* * *

"I'm hungry."

"Quiet, Taki."

There was silence for a few moments as the boys shuffled through the underbrush, searching.

"I'm thirsty."

"Drink from the stream, Lijin," came the impatient reply. Zhimao, the tallest of the boys, walked ahead of the other two along the bank of the stream, looking this way and that. "Where _are_ they?" he muttered to himself. "They have to be close now."

"Maybe we should go back." Taki's eyes were wide in his round, good-natured face. "It's getting dark. What if it rains?"

"We'll weave the branches together and make shelter," said Zhimao, waving his arms to encompass the gloom of the forest all around. "It'll be fun!"

"I miss my mom." Lijin heaved a sigh as he sat down on the bank of the stream, looking down at the water. "She'll be worried about me. Yenzi's going to yell at me."

"What do girls know about adventuring?" Zhimao waved a dismissive hand. "Think about what the kids at school are going to say when they hear we've talked to a prince!"

"Not just any prince—the Dragon Prince." Taki's enthusiasm picked up at the prospect.

Lijin bent over the stream for a hasty drink, then fell into step with the other two. "Do you think they'll let me join the guard?"

Zhimao snorted. "You're too short, and you're not a bender." He took a lunging step forward, thrusting out a palm to emit a fist-sized flame. "Me, on the other hand..."

"I think you're both too young." Taki's words were lost in the other two boys' bickering.

"There are so non-benders in the prince's guard!"

"Are not!"

"Are so!"

The sky brightened in a flash of lightning, and a rumble of thunder echoed across the hills. All three boys ventured a look up at the sky, only to have raindrops spatter on their upturned faces.

They scrambled from the steam bank deeper into the woods, but as the rain fell harder it penetrated the leaf cover to soak them. Soon they were shivering, huddled together for warmth as they tried to decide what to do.

"Now would be a good time to make a branch shelter," said Lijin, his teeth starting to chatter.

"I guess," Zhimao looked down at the muddy ground with a distinct lack of eagerness to rest there, shelter or no shelter.

"You guys want to go back?" Taki asked, his own voice wavering. The other two nodded, and together they headed downstream. Zhimao wanted to find the old stream bed back home, but they couldn't locate it in the dark and the rain and gave up. They followed the current of the stream instead, arguing over the rattle of the rain.

"This is all your fault, Zhimao."

"Me? You're the one who wanted to come along!"

"I'm scared."

"Wait." Lijin cocked his head, listening. "Do you hear something?"

The other two went still, and there it was—a rustle in the underbrush, footfalls coming closer.

"You've found us!" Taki hurried toward the noise before Zhimao or Lijin could say anything. "We were lost, and-"

The figure emerged from the underbrush, low to the ground and sleek, the light of its eyes leaving a yellow trail in the darkness. Lightning flashed again, illuminating black stripes on grey fur, and its gleaming knifelike teeth.

"Tiger-wolf!" yelled Lijin. Taki stumbled back, falling to the mud as his legs gave out; the tiger-wolf pounced, the ensuing thunder muffling the boys' screams.

A shadow fell across Taki as he struggled to get away. He looked up slack-jawed at the man who stood before him, a glint of steel in each hand. The man met the tiger-wolf in the middle of its leap, striking as he swerved to avoid the snapping teeth.

The beast whimpered as it went flying to the side from the force of the blow, though there was no blood on its fur. It stood to face the man, teeth bared, but then the sources of light that had cast the shadow moved closer—a woman, and then a taller man, both with flames in their hands that burned steady in the rain.

They closed in on the tiger-wolf from three sides, the swordsman in the middle and the firebenders at the sides, the flames illuminating the stern purpose in their faces. Growling, the beast looked from one to the other as they approached, the flames and the blade. Then its resistance gave out and it turned to flee into the night.

The swordsman turned to them, his eyes unreadable behind his dripping hair as he sheathed his blades. "Lijin, Taki, and Zhimao?" he asked in a voice no louder than the rain on the leaves.

"Prince Zuko?" asked Lijin, his own voice wavering.

The swordsman's shoulder twitched. "No," he said as the male firebender burst out laughing.

With a frantic crash through the brush a boy barely older than the three boys burst through, his ponytail askew and his hair flattened to his head. "Did you find them?" he gasped out, bent over with his hands on his knees.

"Yes, your Highness." The swordsman bowed to him.

"Prince Zuko!" Taki made as if to prostrate himself, but Zuko waved a hand.

"None of that." The prince pulled an awed Taki to his feet. "Let's get you to camp. You need to take those clothes off and get warm. Ming," he turned to the woman firebender. "Raise the signal. I think it's too late for the parents to go back to the city, and they'll probably want to join their sons."

"At once, my prince." The woman bowed and headed for a gap in the trees.

"That's the prince?" Zhimao's whisper was too loud as the boys followed the grownups through the rain. "He's just a boy!"

"Not just any boy," Lijin looked over his shoulder at the bedraggled figure outlined against the signal flare. He continued, with the calm of conviction: "He's the Dragon Prince."


	23. Chapter 10: Flames in the Night 2 of 4

Note: My eternal thanks goes to Amy Raine for pointing out that the earlier draft of this passage didn't really work, leading me to rewrite it from a different PoV entirely. I think the results are better, but in case you want to compare the earlier version is on my LJ.

Also, thank you FairLadyZ2005 for pointing out errors in the earlier version.

* * *

The camping ground was dark and only lit with occasional streaks of fire as she picked her way over the mud and detritus, her parents and the other adults shadows all around. Their two guides walked on ahead, guiding them, nodding to the other uniformed guards around the perimeter. Her hair dripped and her clothes stuck to her from the rain, and once she realized she was trembling from the cold and the damp. It seemed a distant thing, though, not worth giving a thought. Yenzi was looking for a face, a child's face that did not belong in this place of soldiers and grownups, and nothing mattered until she saw him again.

The firelight at the far end of the camp grew brighter with their approach, from between tents that loomed black in the night and makeshifts earthen stoves that glowed with dull heat. Here at the back of the camp a cave opened into the hill that stood over it, and fire sent shadows frolicking across the walls in time to the piping voices of little boys.

"Squirt," Yenzi murmured, stopping at the cave entrance. Next to her, her mother gripped her arm so hard it hurt. They all stood there a moment taking in the sight of Lijin, Zhimao, and Taki, wrapped in blankets that engulfed them from neck to feet as they sat around the fire, the glow warm on their faces as they laughed.

"Mom!" Taki was the first to spot them standing there. "Dad!" He stood, the blanket slipping from one shoulder and his mouth gaping in a huge grin as he held out his arms. Before he could take two steps his mother had her arms tight around him, her laughter coming in chokes and sobs.

And then it was just a stampede to everyone's respective kids, rushing to catch them up, pat them on the back, lecture them, and coo over them. Yenzi winced to see Zhimao's uncle give him a cuff on the ear; she was glad her parents never hit her and Lijin.

"Oh, you are _so_ grounded, kiddo." She snatched Lijin into her arms the moment he managed to squirm out of Mom and Dad's embrace. She ruffled his damp hair until it stood on end, keeping her voice light to hide how it trembled. "And I mean, rest-of-your-life grounded." She let him go, grinning at the way he scowled and tried to smooth his hair back down.

"Don't ever do that again, going off without telling us." Mom's voice was heavy with the tears she held back as she knelt to stroke Lijin's face. "We were sick with worry, Lijin. I was afraid I'd never see you again!"

"I'm sorry, Mama." Lijin put his arms around Mom's neck and touched his lips to her cheek. "I won't do it again." He buried his head in Mom's shoulder in complete surrender, like collapsing into a familiar bed after a long day. Watching them, Yenzi swallowed back a throbbing in her own throat. Agni's bum, she was a blubbering mess tonight.

"Grounding that boy for a lifetime is looking mighty tempting right now." Dad, standing next to her, nudged her with a shoulder.

Yenzi chuckled, loving him for the way he knew with just how to get a smile out of her and when she needed it. "You really want to deal with him bored and blazing through the house for a week, never mind life?"

"You have a point there."

Just then there were footsteps and hushed whispers, and Yenzi turned around in time to see two figures enter the cave. The taller of the two lowered the umbrella he had been holding over them, and snapped closed the bamboo spokes with a flurry of drops that glinted in the fire like liquid sparks. It was the guy from earlier, the one with the wife and the fruit. He was about her age, Yenzi noticed, with shoulders made for work in the fields and a few strands of hair falling over a face that seemed used to laughter. Not bad looking, if you liked them built like oxen.

The shorter figure came forward into the circle of firelight, shifting from a shadowed figure into a boy just a few years older than Lijin. He was at that age when a boy not only unfolded like bamboo after spring rains, but also started struggling into the beginnings of a young man. There was no mistaking the resemblance to his father; his was a younger version of the face Yenzi saw every day at the back of her classroom or the store. That, and the glow of gold and silk in his clothes, said: here is a prince. Mind your manners, or else.

"Welcome." The boy prince didn't raise his voice, but it still carried over them and echoed from the stone walls. Maybe it was because everyone else had fallen silent. "I am Prince Zuko, son of Firelord Ozai." He nodded to them all, his warrior's ponytail fluttering in the heat from the fire.

"Your Majes- your Highness." Yenzi suppressed a smile at the sight of her father trying to decide if he should prostrate himself on the stone floor or keep standing, doing a kind of dance of indecision where he stood. In the end he settled for putting his work-scarred hands together and bowing low. She followed his example because, in spite of what people might think of her, she _could_ be polite when she wanted to. The others, who were all looking to each other for what to do, did the same.

Prince Zuko returned the bow, and his white teeth glinted in the fire as he smiled. "You have walked a long way in this weather. Sit by my fire and eat with me." Yenzi knew those words, old words of invitation, hospitality, and protection. In an earlier age he would have asked them to eat of his kill. "I only wish I could provide better accommodation."

"N-not at all, Highness." Dad shook his head and his outstretched hands at the same time like he'd heard something preposterous. Yenzi was savoring the moment, seeing her usually stolid father out of his depth and fumbling like a schoolboy. "It's just that... we hate to impose..."

"I insist." Yenzi gulped in spite of herself when Zuko walked up closer to place a hand on her father's bicep. "I couldn't let you make your way back to the city tonight in this weather."

Dad stifled a squeak at the back of his throat, and Mom next to him ducked her head to hide a smile. No doubt she, too, planned to rib him about this for months if not years to come.

The prince's nostrils flared as he took a deep breath of an eddy of warm air through the cold and rain. Yenzi did the same, and her stomach rumbled at the aroma of meat on the fire. She placed a hand over it, hoping no one noticed. Prince Zuko said his cook was preparing a meal of muttonpork stew and baked fish, and they needed someone to help them finish the food.

Well, thought Yenzi, who could say no to an argument like that? Her digestive tract approved, and her feet wanted to dig into the ground at the thought of going out into the night and the thudding rain. The adults must have felt the same way, because her father bowed about five times and said what an honor it was, while the others murmured in approval—or maybe it was just their stomachs growling.

The prince smiled like they'd presented him with some brilliant gift, and left them to their preparations. Attendants and guards in approached with towels, but Mom created a burst of heat to dry herself. Yenzi smirked at the way the guards raised their eyebrows and looked at each other; they were soldiers who only knew about throwing flames around, not the fine-grained control that the forge demanded. Yenzi tried the same on her father and she nearly got it, too, except the heat was uneven and the back of his jacket caught fire. Mom put it out with a wave of her hand, patted Yenzi's cheek, and in moments had her warm and fluffy from another blast of warmth.

"I wanna try!" Lijin ran in to stand before Mom, his blanket draping from his outstretched arms. "Do it on me, Mom!"

"You're dry as you're going to get." Mom laughed and reached down to pat his bottom. "We'll just put some clothes on you and you'll be handsome as ever."

"Then you do it, Yenzi." Lijin turned to her, taking the same pose though he shuffled his feet, tensing as though readying himself to run or roll any moment.

"I'm not about to set any little kids on fire." Yenzi crossed her arms. "That would be just wrong, unless you _really_ act out." She smirked at the terror that passed over her little brother's face. This should keep him in line for oh, the next hour if she was lucky. Off to the side Dad grumbled how she didn't seem to mind roasting her old man. Yenzi ignored him while Mom cooed over him, telling her how the same thing happened to her earlier in the day. Old folks—did they ever shut up about minor accidents that almost burned them alive?

While Mom dried out old Jiang and the others, Yenzi could no longer ignore a certain pressure in her bladder that she hadn't time for in the last couple of hours. She sidled up to a woman guard who understood the situation within two stammering words and gave her an oilcloth raincoat and directions._ Oh, thank you!_ thought Yenzi as she left the cave, the raindrops pattering on the oilcloth as she walked. She would totally want to be that lady when she was older—if she saw any value in guarding a pampered princeling with her life, that is, or in using fire to kill and maim.

She made her way between the tents, the clatter and rush of the rain-swelled stream at her left, when she saw figures approaching from the opposite direction. Yenzi recognized the bamboo umbrella and the tall man holding it for the shorter boy; Prince Zuko and the ox-guard. Not in the mood to bow another twenty times, she sloshed through the mud to get a tent between the prince's party and herself. Thankfully they didn't notice her, and passed on by as they talked.

"They're not angry at me, Khoujin?" Prince Zuko's voice came through the raindrops with its rough edge of worry and puberty. "Did I make a good impression?"

"You did fine," the guard Khoujin had the air of someone repeating himself more than once. "They know it's not your fault their boys went missing."

"Really?" The prince gave a relieved sigh even while his voice grew tighter with anxiety. "You're not just saying that to make me feel better?"

"Let's... get you some rest before you eat," said a new voice, a woman's or rather a girl's, not doing a good job of hiding a giggle. "You could do with a little relaxing."

Yenzi snorted to herself as the footsteps faded away. It was strange to think of the prince as a child, tumbling all over himself like a puppy trying too hard to please. His parents couldn't be too nice if he was always living in fear of being blamed for something. Or maybe that was just his father the Firelord—whatever became of Prince Zuko's mother, anyway?

Yenzi recalled Firelord Ozai's stern eyes and shrugged off a touch of cold, which was probably from the rain anyway. That brought home how badly she needed to pee, and she hurried on downstream. She didn't want to miss the food.

* * *

The tiger-wolf chased the boys around and around the fire, his hulking form dragging black shadows across the firelight. Above them the rain drummed on the shelter of waxed canvas stretched on wooden poles, the crackle of the fire a counterpoint to the chatter and chill of the rain. The muttonpork, fish, and fresh vegetables were long gone, and they all sat comfortable and full with the work of actual conversation ahead of them.

Yenzi reached out a hand to tickle Lijin as he ran by, bright-eyed and breathless. The off-duty Khoujin as the tiger-wolf was closing in, and her brother gave half a laugh, half a shriek as he ran on.

"That young man will make a fine father." Mom turned to Sa Ye, the sweetly demure and demurely sweet girl who was arranging citrus fruits on a plate for dessert. Mom was fawning so hard over the girl, it was disgusting. Yenzi made plans for a quick escape in case her mother embarrassed her further by patting the girl's barely swollen abdomen and speculating on the sex of the baby.

"Thank you, Madam An." A smile dimpled Sa Ye's petal-smooth cheeks even as she cast her eyes down at her plate of fruit. She seemed not so much to say her words as _glow_ them, like they came off her in rays of joy and soaked into the listener's skin. Everyone was having a hard time looking away from her, including, Yenzi had to admit, herself.

"Khoujin is making good progress on his reading and writing lessons as well," said a fussy man with a mustache whose name Yenzi kept forgetting, Master Li or something. "But he is not nearly so diligent as Sa Ye here. She was writing her own name in hours!"

Yenzi dropped her forehead into her hand as Sa Ye blushed and said her teacher was too kind. Could this evening get any more boring? Mom cooed something about how brave Sa Ye was under such difficult circumstances, then stroked her shoulder. A flash of anger surprised Yenzi—she had to keep herself from reaching out to snatch the hand away. _Mine, _came the thought like some bratty three-year-old's. _Not yours._

"Huh," Yenzi snorted. "Guess I should have thought of getting knocked up before I could read and write."

The voices fell silent around the fire, and Yenzi could feel the glances like pinpricks. "Except I was... four?" she said, feeling that she tripped over her own tongue.

"Yenzi." Mom shook her head, the "Yen" rising like a question and the "zi" trailing behind in a buzz of reproach. Just then Lijin, bless him, came up running and plastered himself against Mom, peeking over her shoulder into the night. Yenzi followed his gaze and saw Khoujin lumbering into the circle of light with Zhimao slung over his broad shoulders and Taki clutched like a squealing parcel against his side.

He gave Lijin a wink, and plopped Taki down next to his parents and Zhimao in a heap next to his uncle. Yenzi grinned to see Zhimao smooth down his clothes and straighten the folded hems. Prince Zuko had lent the kids his clothes because their own needed washing, and Zhimao in particular strutted around in them like a prince himself.

"Tiger-wolf hungry," growled Khoujin, sinking down next to Sa Ye on Mom's other side. "Woman feed tiger-wolf."

"Oh, for... you just ate!" Sa Ye's gaze darted around before she fed him a slice of orange. And then he put an arm around her waist and—wait, he wasn't going to kiss her _here,_ in front of everyone? Yenzi snapped her head away, trying very hard to focus on her yogurt dessert. Except that gentle _smack_ of flesh on flesh to her left and the freshness of citrus in the air... ew.

She looked up just in time to see Sa Ye push her ox away, blushing as demure girls did. The grownups were talking a little too loudly about the clumsiness of Jiang's newest apprentice while they exchanged sly looks with each other. Weren't adults supposed to frown on kids doing this kind of thing?

Even Prince Zuko sitting across from her seemed amused, sneaking glances at the two of them and grinning. Was that boy even a prince? Yenzi would have expected someone more... scowly, like his father. But he seemed like such a normal kid as he sat there petting the drowsing wingcat that lay draped across his legs. Yenzi supposed the poor creature was happy to be in the one location that was safe from her brother and his friends' hugs and tail-pulling.

There was a lull in the conversation while Sa Ye and two other girls passed around plates of fruit, though by this point Yenzi had no stomach for citrus. Instead she tried to tease tendrils out of the fire at the center of the seating circle. If she did it right, focus her will to fold the fire over itself and circulate in a self-contained loop, she could make a tool out of it to drill and etch and cut. Mom once said her old master could create a needle out of a bonfire, so bright you could no more look at it than stare into a midday sun.

It was no good, though. She couldn't get her pose or breathing right when she was sitting like this. The fire sent out a tongue of flame her way, but before she could give it form the flame dissipated and dropped to the ground. She rubbed at an ache in her temple.

Lots of people asked her why she wasted her time learning a dying art. There were no men in in forge-bending anymore because they were drafted, and fighting was what firebending was for anyway, right? Get easy, well-paid work instead, they said, guarding some rich noblewoman. Yenzi looked sidelong at the lady guard from earlier, Ming.

"So what's it like, being a guardswoman?" Ming had also been there to save her brother from the (real) tiger-wolf. As far as Yenzi was concerned, if the lady advised her to dress in a hog-monkey suit and dance for a living she'd seriously consider it.

"Curious?" Ming asked with her voice of dark silk, and sipped from her teacup. "You're a bender yourself, I hear. And your mother." She nodded to Mom, who smiled back.

"Yes, but... different." How did she explain forge-training to a 'normal' firebender? "We use fire to make, not-" she caught herself before she could say 'destroy.' "We're craftspeople, not warriors."

"I wish I knew a trade like that." Ming's eyes reflected the fire as she gazed at it. "Women firebenders are usually prison guards. Enough that we call a woman serving 'going to prison.'" She chuckled at the look on Yenzi's face. "I know, not fun. I worked hard to earn a place here."

"And?"

"It's a job. Gets boring." Ming gave Prince Zuko a sidelong glance and cupped her mouth with a hand to stage-whisper: "Sometimes the boss makes it interesting, and then it's worse."

"Hey!" said Prince Zuko, and joined in his guards' laughter. So Firelord Ozai's son didn't burn people on the spot for making jokes about him. Interesting.

"But you get to see the world and meet people." Ming's smile glittered in the firelight. "And really, it's an honor to serve. Isn't that why your brother and his friends came all this way?" She turned to Lijin. "How does it feel to see a prince?"

Lijin looked up to see the gazes on him and leaned against Mom until he was half hiding behind her, his eyes crinkling in a smile. He met Prince Zuko's gaze and mumbled something before he buried his face in Mom's shoulder. And to think this was the boy who once paraded his mother's and sister's unmentionables through the streets on a clothespole.

"I'm... I just wanted to say I'm really sorry about all this." The prince's hand tightened on his cat's back, prompting it to untuck its head from underwing and give him a yellow gaze. "Your boys should never have been in danger in the first place."

"Nonsense," Mom snorted. "You can't possibly be responsible for my son's wild ways, Highness—although if you are," her face dimpled, "we will have words." The other parents agreed with her.

A different question bothered Yenzi, though, nudging like the pebbles under the mat they sat on. It wasn't the Prince's fault, sure, but princes didn't usually camp outside in the rain and mud, did they? Out where little boys might come out to see them, as kids will, and almost got eaten by tiger-wolves?

"So why didn't you come into the city?" Did she just say that out loud? Oh, and it just had to be a moment when no one else was making inane conversation. Under the weight of grownup gazes, Yenzi briefly considered joining Lijin behind Mom's back.

"I mean..." Might as well forge ahead now that she had to open her big mouth. "If you did, no one would have come searched for you out here." She shrugged, her shoulders stiff. She wished they'd stop looking at her.

It had a really interesting effect on the prince, though. He looked wide-eyed at her, opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and gave the fussy Master Li the look of a drowning man who needed rope. Master Li or La or whomever took over without so much as a facial hair twitch. "We thought it wise to keep our location quiet, for security reasons."

Well, if Master Mustachio's too-smooth answer didn't tell her he was telling a practiced lie, the way Prince Eloquent there sighed and slumped in visible relief was a lot harder to miss.

"I suppose there's some who aren't too happy about what you did at that village," Jiang the old carpenter picked a lemon-lime slice from a nearby plate, chewing it over with a frown-line between his bushy brows. "What was the place? Taminlan?"

"Tamalan," Mom corrected him as she took a slice of grapefruit.

"These names are always changing," grumbled Jiang. Yenzi imagined any name _he_ remembered must be a hundred years old at least. "Anyhow, I reckon you've got some people scared." He grinned at the prince with lemon-lime stained lips.

"Scared?" Prince Zuko's brows furrowed. "Why would anyone be afraid of me?"

The question hung in the air, the ripples spreading out and changing the air. The grownups exchanged Looks with each other, and then glanced at the kids who were in different stages of drowsy to dozing to dead to the world. Zhimao's aunt coaxed her yawning nephew to his feet and took Taki's hand, while Dad took a limp Lijin from Mom's arms.

When her parents glanced her way, Yenzi crossed her arms and stared back. No way she was going to bed like a little kid. Sa Ye and Khoujin weren't being sent away, were they? Mom shrugged while Dad actually grinned at her from behind Mom's back, Lijin's unresisting weight draped over his back.

Jiang settled deeper into his place on the rush mat as the children were led away. "Ah well, suppose a man should finish what he started." He eyed Zuko like he would a dubious piece of lumber: Was it sound? Would it hold? "If I were to make a guess," Jiang went on, sucking the fruity stickiness from his fingers, "I think your Lord Zhen tried what he did at that village because he was feeling the squeeze himself."

"Squeezed... by who?" Prince Zuko raised his eyebrows. "It's not as though he was paying taxes."

"Unlike us," Zhimao's uncle muttered.

"By competition," Jiang said, with a terse wave of his hand. "It's all those lands we're taking in the Earth Kingdom colonies, worked by, well, slaves from all I hear. Prisoners, real desperate peasants. All these dirt cheap grains, from a dirt people." He laughed, but without much heart. Making fun of Earth Kingdom peasants was funny only so many times; the stories about their poverty and backward ways seemed to cut closer every time.

"Petty lords like Zhen struggle in this flooded market, I hear." Mom took up the explanation, leaning into the fire and the conversation. "They try to consolidate the lands they already have, turn them to more profitable uses, grazing, coffee, cottonsilk. Sometimes, though," she picked at a thread in her skirt, "there are people in the way."

"Long-term tenants." Prince Zuko's eyes grew round. Sa Ye looked up from where she collected the empty fruit plates.

"Aye." Jiang picked at an orange rind with his teeth, then threw it into the fire where it sent up a sweet smoke before it shriveled away. "They're not big on change, these country folk."

Mom nodded. "Mostly they farm to eat, not sell. They take up land that could make their lords so much money."

"They work hard," Dad's voice came from behind them. He came to sit down next to Yenzi as he spoke. "They pay taxes, too—in food crops worth nothing compared to the cheap harvests from the colonies."

"So they're just... thrown off the lands they've lived on for generations?" Zuko's voice rose. Out of the corner of her eye Yenzi saw Khoujin reach for Sa Ye's hand. The two of them held on tight, like their linked hands were the only anchor keeping them from being swept away on some unimaginable tide.

"It happened to my folks." Dad shrugged. Yenzi didn't remember much of his parents—Grandpa Tien had died when Yenzi was little, before Dad even met Mom, and Grandma lived all the way over on the Stepping Stones. "My old man was a blacksmith so he had it better than most, but it was still hard." All Yenzi knew about Grandma was that she would set the hag aflame and toast sugar-puffs over the fire if she went on one more time about Yenzi not being Dad's _real_ daughter, so it was just as well they hadn't met in years. Damned close-minded country hicks.

"That's what Lord Zhen was trying to do." Prince Zuko's throat worked as though he was going to be sick . "To push the village out. But why would my father allow..." he snapped his mouth shut, biting back the words.

"Pressure control." Dad was too quick with his answer, as though he spent a lot of time thinking about this. What else did he and Mom talk about when she and Lijin couldn't hear? "Think what would happen if the petty lords had to keep to the law, and couldn't shunt off their losses from the war. They'd balk at the idea of continuing it at all."

"That would threaten the whole war effort," said Jiang, in a mumble that carried over the crackle of the fire.

Prince Zuko said nothing as he looked into the fire, his face set as though he saw terrible omens there. There were stories about the royal house, about the first Firelord who used to be a Fire Sage and read signs in the flames...

Though she saw no visions, Yenzi thought of a fight she had seen at market years ago when two butchers started arguing over turf and things escalated. She remembered the butcher knives clenched white-knuckled fists, the flash of teeth and eyes in angry faces.

If people could come close to knifing each other over their tiny businesses, how would things get over the colonies—the vast, fertile lands that brought in more in a year than those two men at the market would see in a lifetime of dismembering oxboar? A stray wind touched her neck and made her shiver.

"Uh..." Khoujin cleared his throat. "What becomes of those folk?" He turned to Dad. "The ones who get kicked off the land."

"They live hand to mouth for the most part," Dad looked down at the ground, his elbows on his knees. "They don't have the skills to live in the city."

"That's why so many of them go to the recruitment offices," said Mom. "All those young people." She put her arms around herself, and Yenzi _felt_ the embrace even though they did not touch.

She could see the workings and structure of the thing, now, like someone spread a blueprint before her. It was a self-perpetuating machine that would never stop on its own, and would chew up anyone stupid enough to try.

"We're the greatest civilization history has seen." Prince Zuko looked around at them, a note of desperation in his voice. "We have a duty to share our achievements and our way of life with the world."

"That may be, Prince Zuko," Jiang raised his eyes to look at him. "And maybe the world'll come to see it that way. But, well..." his shoulders jerked in a shrug. "When Lord Zhen sent his guards to Tamalan, did those country folk give up and see it his way?"

Zuko swallowed and looked away. His gaze fell on Khoujin and Sa Ye holding hands, and on each of the others in turn. He met Yenzi's eyes, too, as though he saw and knew her, knew them all as people with their own thoughts and lives—but that was impossible, wasn't it? That wasn't how people like him saw people like her.

The prince ducked his head and squeezed his eyes shut as if in pain. He took a breath, released it in what she recognized as breathing exercise, and opened his eyes.

"Forgive me." He nodded to them. "I kept you too long from your rest. The guards and staff will show you to your tents for the night."

He stood, spilling an indignant wingcat from his lap, and of course everyone had to stand with him. There was bowing all around, many thank-yous, all very polite—but something had closed off behind Zuko's eyes, and there was new distance between him and them; a reminder. As soon as he was done the prince strode away, leaving Khoujin to to hurry after him holding a half-open umbrella in one hand and a yowling wingcat in the other.

That was more like it, thought Yenzi as she watched them go. Getting all huffy over anything that threatened his comfortable little world. He was just as close-minded, petty, and self-serving as the rest of them.

Thank Agni. It was so much safer that way, for him and everyone involved.

"Brat." She snorted with laughter, keeping her voice low so the adults wouldn't hear her over their whispered argument over who said too much and insulted their host. Prince Zuko wasn't a bad kid, really, and too nice to get caught up in dangerous business. Let him stay oblivious and noble, for all their sakes.


	24. Chapter 10: Flames in the Night 3 of 4

Note: This one's for FairLadyZ2005, who expressed a liking for Lijin. I decided to add a couple of touches to the character, here and later in the story, after her comments. Of course, a character drawing my attention may not be the best thing for him. (See: Zuko) Also, thank you FairLady for pointing out places to edit and clarify in the earlier version.

This part is pretty dark and violent, so be forewarned.

* * *

There was fire on the sea, as far as he could see to the horizon. All colors were red in that hot, flickering light, and the sinuous wrecks of dead dragons floated in an expanse of blood. Bubbles rose to the surface as a wing sank into the water there, a horned head there, into those depths never to be seen again.

"How could you do this?" he shouted to the figure standing on a bluff that overlooked the burning sea and dead dragons. "You're supposed to be a hero!" His uncle the Firelord did not answer, his face betraying nothing. The clang of metal came to Zuko on a searing wind.

The Firelord turned to him, and Zuko saw it was not his uncle at all but his father. Father's eyes glowed with flame and his voice seemed to come not from his mouth but to ring from the sky above and the ground beneath their feet, rattling Zuko's bones so he had to struggle to keep standing.

_If these base and violent beasts spoil for a fight, they shall have more than they ever wanted._

A punishing wind rose from the sea, swirling the Firelord's robes around him. Zuko shielded his eyes with an arm to keep out the stinging. The ground shook under his feet and the screams were louder in his ears.

_Thus is the will of your Firelord._

The Firelord pointed a finger, his sleeve flying, and Zuko followed with his eyes to see Mother on the beach below. She was trying to climb up to join him, but the beach was sliding sideways and she slipped into the bloody waters even as she scrabbled for a handhold. She met his eyes across the distance, confused that her own son would not help her.

"Get up."

He flew down the slope to the beach, to save her or join her, but the whole tableau was shaking in a mad dance as the beach tilted. But he was right there, so close he could see the crow's feet around her eyes, and knelt to reach for her. "Mom!"

_May all who are loyal to this Nation-_

A wall of flame sprang up between Zuko and his mother. He recoiled from the heat while the red sky trembled and the whole bluff began to crumble into the sea. Zuko spun around to face his father, but a burst of white fire from the red dragon's maw filled his vision, coming straight at his face and blinding him with its brilliance.

_Obey, _roared the inhuman voice. And the fire struck him full on and he had to save his mother, his face peeled brightly away and outside there were screams in the night.

"Get up, damn you." A hand hauled him up by the scruff of the neck, and he sat up in darkness streaked with distant flames. Footsteps rushed by outside his tent and people were shouting.

"Shun?" Zuko lowered the arm he had raised over his head. Shun released him and stood, tense as a dog on the scent as he turned his attention outside. In the firelight his naked sword gleamed, and Zuko's stomach lurched when he realized it was wet with blood.

"My prince, we must leave at once." Another guard knelt before him, holding out his clothes.

"W-why? What's happening?" Zuko tried to blink away the shreds of sleep and dream. He reached under his pillow, remembering the knife Uncle gave him. His fingers closed around the inlaid hilt, its cool solidity anchoring him to the here and now. Where was Shao Mei? He hoped she had already fled somewhere safe, the scaredy cat.

"Leave the clothes," Shun's voice was harsh, with a thick accent—Earth Kingdom?—that left Zuko staring at a stranger. "We're going now."

"But-" Zuko pushed his bedding away to stand in his thin sleeping shirt and pants, shivering from more than the cold. He felt like he held back a tide, one wrong move would burst the dam and force him to face the knowledge of-

There was a screech behind him; he looked over his shoulder and lost all sense of reality at the sight of a flaming arrow punching through the back of his tent. The eager flames leapt from the tar-soaked rag around the arrow shaft to the canvas of the tent, the dancing red tendrils ensnaring his gaze with their beauty.

Shun grabbed his arm and dragged him bodily from the tent, while Zuko stumbled and tried to catch his balance in a world that rocked off its axis.

"The camp is under attack, my prince." The other guard's words found him where he stood at the entrance, gaping. Before him tents went up like giant torches and steel clanged in the shadows between the fires, the screams of fire, metal, and men swirling into a starless sky.

* * *

"Hurry!" Khoujin caught a shoulder, an arm, whatever he could reach to get the townsfolk in line on the bank of the stream and send them on their way. "Follow the guards. They'll take you to safety." Or at least a defensible position, but whatever got them moving. Zuko would be safe as anyone with that creepy colonial Shun; right now, protecting the civilians was his job.

"Is that everyone?" No, no it wasn't. He looked around and caught sight of the smith, with her husband and barb-tongued daughter, hovering around their tent wringing their hands.

"Madam An!" He splashed back across the stream to them, the cold water biting into his legs. "We have to go, now!" Did the city folk lose a wallet or what? Spirits help him, he'd drag them by force if he had to.

"It's my son." Her face crumpled as she turned to him. "I don't see him anywhere!"

All right, he was a great big jackass as his brothers would so helpfully remind him. More importantly, _crap._ He scanned the camp, with its fires and debris and the outline of fighting men where Huang and others held things off at the moment. Kid could be anywhere in this mess, unconscious or- Spirits damn him, he wouldn't even think it.

"I'll go find him. Any idea where he might have gone?" The civilians needed to haul ass five minutes ago, and screw it all—this was a little kid they were talking about.

"We're coming with you," said Madam An. Oh yeah, nothing wrong with that plan, drag along three civvies who had too much at stake into what could be a battlefield.

"No." He shook his head. "You're going to follow the others, and get to safety." It took him a fall or ten to realize there was more to being the prince's guard than being a hotshot firebender. Now he knew just enough to know that having three untrained and upset civilians along in a battlefield search mission was a very bad idea, bender or no.

The whole family seemed ready to argue with him or just storm off themselves when Ming came running up. "What's the holdup? We have to go!"

"One of the kids went missing. I'm going to go find him." He met her eye, daring her to stop him.

Madam An's husband started to protest, but Ming held up a hand. "Having you with us will only slow us down." She looked in turn at the little family. "I promise we'll bring your boy back. But we need you to go with the others."

"Ming's right, Mom, Dad," said the daughter, Yenzi. "We should go." And where was the part where Khoujin was right? But he'd take what he could get.

"You know..." Madam An's daughter paused as she passed. "When Lijin's awake in the middle of the night it's usually to, uh, pee." She and Ming exchanged a smile at that. Spirits, he didn't even want to know.

"To the latrines first, then." Ming turned away. "Keep your eyes peeled."

The parents followed the girl, still looking around like Lijin might pop up at any moment. And there was Sa Ye—his heart knocked against his ribs—taking Madam An's arm and helping her across the stream.

"Don't do anything stupid," Sa Ye called after him as he took off at a jog next to Ming.

"Name one time I was stupid," he raised his voice over the sounds of approaching battle.

"I will, but it's going to take all night." She dragged out the last word in a singsong very unlike her.

What the? He looked over his shoulder in time to see the city girl Yenzi slap a hand to her forehead and double her pace like a whupped dog—or bitch, as it were. He snorted with laughter and ran on.

"Focus." The slap on the back of the head brought him back to the night chill and the smoldering camp. Right, missing kid. Life or death. He ran with the stream, the watery reflection of flames keeping pace in the dark.

* * *

"Archers!" screamed a guard, pointing. A hard weight slammed into Zuko's midsection and took him to the ground, the arrows whistling overhead as he tried to catch his breath. Shun got off him and rose to a crouch, teeth and sword bared as he gazed into the night.

Shun's tackle had brought them next to a boulder where a tilting tent leaned, forming a hiding place in its shadow if only for the moment. Zuko propped himself up on his hands, only to have a brusque hand push his head down.

"Stay down." Shun breathed as men ran past shouting orders. What was going on, were the townsfolk safe? On his stomach and elbows, the mud seeping through the thin cotton of his sleeping clothes, Zuko peered around Shun to look.

The smoke from the camp burned in his mouth. The place reminded him of some volcanic devastation, flames flickering over trampled and fallen tents and refuse scattered across the mud. Other tents burned where they stood, sliding and tilting as he watched. In the distance the rhinos grunted and shuffled in alarm from their pen.

The men leaped and whirled across the orange lights, shadow puppetry to the music of steel and flame. The whine of arrows lessened and then ceased as the two sides mingled like two wildfires merging into one.

Their assailants wore mismatched armor like brigands, but something about them was wrong; the way they fought betrayed too much training, and no common robbers could have broken through his guards and into the camp the way these men had.

Beyond the center of the camp where the fighting was fiercest, a knot of guards and the motley group of townsfolk crossed the stream that cut across the north-west corner of the camp, to make their way toward a gully between two hills. Zuko remembered Master Lu saying they might defend themselves even against a superior force there. If they could hold on until morning, maybe get a message out to the city...

"That's him!" Zuko tensed at the shout, his neck trying to turtle into hunched shoulders; but the attackers were looking not his way but pointing across the stream at the fleeing civilians. Zuko's breath hitched when his gaze fell on Zhimao, tall for his age and wearing Zuko's own clothes. At once the assailants pushed toward the stream and gully, no doubt to intercept "Prince Zuko" and his party.

So these were assassins, after all, not brigands. Zuko felt the heartbeat in his throat, the cool sweat between his shoulder blades. Memories of Tamalan seemed far away here. This was no longer a ritual duel and a battle where everyone understood there was no killing. It was bloodsport, and he was the prey.

He watched frozen in place as the assassins made a rush for the townsfolk and his guards met the attack head on. Swordsmen splashed into the water to come up against a thicket of spears and a wall of shields; the firebenders were face-to-face and hand-to-hand, knocking flaming hands out of the way, extinguishing bolts of fire midair, and kicking up splashes of water and flame. Men crashed into the water, to be struck down where they lay—Zuko squeezed his eyes shut—or to scramble back to their feet and fend off another blow.

"There are too many of them." There was a sick feeling in his stomach. His guards were evenly matched in numbers and training, but they were protecting non-combatants and hampered in their maneuvers. The enemy struck at the center of the defense line, trying to break through to the boys, while his men struggled to hold the line and protect their wings at the same time.

They would not last this way. Not unless the enemy were drawn away by some distraction...

Zuko pulled his knees under him to stand. He flinched when a hand clamped on his arm with a force he could not break free of.

"Let me go." He glared at Shun, whose watchful gaze swung between the battle at the stream and the center of the campsite where only a few assassins lingered.

"No."

Zuko opened his mouth, furious—then he met the man's eyes, and the realization was cold as the mud again his skin.

Shun was _waiting._

His guards would take as many of the assassins with them as they could, to the last if they had to. The enemy might even kill Zhimao and leave, thinking they had been successful. Even if the battle was lost Zuko could keep hidden and escape with Shun at his side. There was no reason to expose the prince when the enemy's attention was elsewhere.

_And why not?_ Came the thought unbidden. _It isn't a bad plan._

Zuko shook his head, his mouth dry. _I swear to give my life for yours, Prince Zuko. _Khoujin had said the words, kneeling before him a hundred miles and a lifetime ago. _And the Nation that is mother to us both_. Zuko still recalled how Sa Ye wept with pride, and how Sanwai complained about the damned dust as he cleared his choked throat.

The heat rose in his chest and flushed his face. Shun was not looking at him but out at the battlefield again, where the line of guards threatened to break under pressure from a determined rush from the enemy. Zuko moved his free right hand toward his left, slowly so as not to alert Shun.

When Shun started and looked his way, the gleam of Zuko's knife was already sweeping up at his face.

* * *

"See him anywhere?" Khoujin scanned the orange-blotched blackness for an irregular shadow, strained his ears to hear a scared kid's shallow breathing. Ahead of him Ming's head moved side to side, and he heard the rustle of her ponytail. What wouldn't he give for a fire, but it wouldn't be the brightest idea when there might be enemies about. Find the kid and go, no time to ask for trouble.

As they went around a bend in the stream past a spur where the hill jutted out, he heard the roar of fire and rush of feet into the water. It was starting: He looked over his shoulder at the bursts of flame, and his fingers itched to throw some fire of his own. They were all there, Madam An and the townsfolk, Sa Ye... he forced himself not to run back and join the battle. Kid first, then set fire to a deserving ass or twenty.

He heard Ming gasp in the dark, and she hurried to a shrub that grew alongside the stream. He followed her and stopped when he stepped on something too hard to be a branch and too soft to be rock. Then in a stray glow of fire from the main camp he recognized the armored arm, a hand. He crouched down, because he wouldn't admit his legs gave out, next to Ming as she put her face close to the dead man's.

"Scout. One of ours." Her whisper touched his ear. Another red glow from behind the spur of hill, and he saw the shaft of an arrow rising from the scout's stomach. He couldn't see the man's face, and didn't want to. What if it was someone he knew?

His shoulders jumped at a tap on his arm. He choked back a shout and turned to Ming, who pointed across the stream to the looming darkness of the hill on the other side. A dull flare of light cast shadows across the hillside of trees, rocks, and men.

_They're lying in wait. _He turned to look toward the battle upstream, where the guardsmen defending the knot of townsfolk would be retreating, step, by step, toward the gully.

But they'd never reach it. The men waiting on the hillside were in position to spring out and cut them off, and trap the guards and civilians between their forces to pulverize-

Sa Ye. A pounding started in his ears and the world spun. The baby. The kids Zhimao and Taki, Madam An, everyone from town, the guards. Could he and Ming sneak back in time to warn them? Would it help when their forces would be outnumbered two to one anyway?

Shadows descended from the hill to the bank on the other side. Khoujin froze, but then there was a scrabble of feet in the dirt and a hitch of breath off to his right. Fire flew over the stream and struck this bank, and a small body tumbled across the bank just twenty paces to Khoujin's right.

Tien Lijin's eyes were huge and his mouth twisted with fear as he lay on the ground, stunned, the fire fading around him. Then the firebenders were upon him, surrounding the boy with their hands alight.

He should leave while they were focused on the kid, give warning about the waiting ambush. Then they could come back for Lijin. The kid must have had the same idea, to sneak to the main group and warn them. Khoujin slid a foot to the left the way he came. He had to join the main party and Sa Ye. Ming hesitated before she followed him.

"Is this him?"

Khoujin looked back to see a firebender thrust his flaming hand into Lijin's face, making the boy shrink away until he backed up against another pair of legs. The bend in the stream was closer now, and Khoujin could hear the battle. A few more paces and he would see, it, too, around the spur of hill. Ming gave him a nudge, and he turned to go on.

"He's got a whole pack of kids dressed like him." Another voice came over the flowing of the stream.

"Yes!" Khoujin's foot scraped to a stop at Lijin's voice. Behind him, Ming did the same. "I-I'm Prince Zuko. What do you want!"

And just like that, his damned feet wouldn't move. Khoujin turned back to Ming and signaled downstream toward the men and Lijin, then at her and back upstream toward the battle beyond. He brushed past her before she could protest.

"Well," said a big firebender standing over Lijin, "let's take a look, then." The flame in his hand grew as he reached his other hand down at the kid. Khoujin took a deep breath as he stood, calling up his inner fire.

A hand reached into the circle of firelight around Lijin and grasped the firebender's wrist. "That's not the prince," said a new voice. "He's far too young, you fool."

Khoujin stumbled to a stop, the fire faltering in his hands. He lowered his hands and threw them back up, sparks on his breath as the fire came hotter and stronger than before.

"Kang!" Khoujin took a step forward, and thrust his hands out in a swirl of flame.

* * *

Shun's eyes grew wide and he knocked Zuko's hand aside. The reflected firelight on the dao blade trembled as Shun held himself back, his grip on Zuko's arm loosening.

Zuko took that moment to break free and throw himself out of the shadow of the fallen tent. He had used Shun's twitchiness to escape as planned, but it was a close thing—he would have felt less than clever to find himself impaled on his own guardsman's sword.

He stood, breathing smoke and ash. Across the campsite and the stream the enemy made a final rush, the line of guards breaking as Zuko watched.

"I'm the one you want!" But he was shouting to a deserted camp, as the few assassins who remained behind at the campsite now rushed to join the offense. He needed their attention if there was to be anything like a defense left, but how? Useless, so useless, a firebender who could not bend.

Zuko's feet sped in time with the beat of his rushing thoughts, and within moments he was running behind one of the assassins in bandit guise. Because he could think of no other way, he grasped Uncle's dagger in both hands and kicked the ground in a surge of speed.

He aimed for the armored back, but the man turned at the last moment and the dagger bit into the flesh of his arm instead, drawing a cry of startlement and pain. In an instant the assassin whirled around to face Zuko, his hand trailing flame along the arc of the spin.

Zuko stepped out of the way. He grasped the flaming hand as it passed, and pushed it along its trajectory into the man's chest. _First rule of safety,_ Uncle's voice said in his head. _Never bend fire toward yourself. Now, if your opponent forgets this rule..._

Zuko took two steps back as the assassin screamed, and then fire made heat waves in the air toward him and took him in the front. He caught a glimpse of cloud-filled night sky as he was flung back, and then the ground hit him in the back and knocked the breath out of him.

"You flaking little-" Zuko sensed the fire building and tried to move, but the churned mud mired him in its clinging grip. He was so tired...

A _shhhrik_ of metal cut the air, and the man's insult ended in a strangled little groan. Zuko was just fighting to a sitting position when his face was spattered with warmth. The salty metal taste touched his tongue as the armored form slumped to the ground, its chest a fountain of red.

Shun shook his blade free of blood as Zuko backed away on his hands. Shun turned and came for him, and just as the scream caught in the back of Zuko's throat Shun leaped clear and pulled the dao into two blades.

Zuko swiveled his neck around to see Shun leap onto an assassin who had come up behind, one blade cutting into a flame-wreathed arm, the other disappearing into the man's neck.

_I never woke up,_ thought Zuko. This wasn't real _not real-_

Shun rose from the corpse, pulling his blades free with a metallic rasp, and swung around to cut down an arrow midair. They were attracting attention now, all right, as more of the assassins ran up from the edges of the camp.

"Get up." The bones in Zuko's shoulder ground against each other in a bruising grip. As he was dragged to his feet he looked up at Shun's face in profile, and did not know this man who spoke like a foreigner and killed without a thought.

The man who held his arm as though to take it off started running, and Zuko had to follow or be dragged. Men were turning around, coming for them, and the dao leapt out again and again to cut them down.

Ahead of him now an arrow's flight away the guardsmen knit their ranks back together, shoulder to shoulder and shield to shield. Maybe he did draw the enemy away enough to let his men reform their defenses. Or Shun did.

A flash to the right of the main group drew his gaze, on the other side of a spur of hill. There were shadows of men there, more assassins lying in wait. Then he saw the figure illuminated in the patches of orange light against a sea of dark.

"Khoujin!"

* * *

Kang's shadowed form leapt out of the way, dodging the fire. Khoujin knew the voice, would never forget it ordering the deaths of Zuko and his village. His flames brushed the bastard instead, lighting up a sleeve and making him an easy target. Khoujin hurled more fire at him and his murdering friends, darting closer and keeping his feet moving. Out of a corner of an eye he saw Ming sweep in and grab the kid, bless her.

A bender ran up, trailing fire from his hand. Khoujin grabbed his wrist and flipped him over his back, throwing him to the ground. He sidestepped the whistle of a passing sword and simply got in the jerk's face. His fist landed with a _crack,_ damn that felt good though he'd feel it later. A third swiped at him; Khoujin ducked and slammed a foot into the guy's midriff, gave him a faceful of fire for good measure.

Was Ming gone with Lijin? Would she warn the others? Just as he looked around, trying to find her in the rush of bodies and burning, a bolt of flame swished past him. He turned in the direction it came, ready to retaliate, when he saw it was Ming. A startled cry behind his back, and the swordsman who had snuck up behind went tumbling back from the force of her flames.

One hand holding Lijin's, Ming pointed and Khoujin saw the shadowy forms of men on the move, to go around and over the spur to strike the rest of their party.

He had to get to the others before the ambush did, or at least join the defense. Benders and swordsmen came at him, surrounding him, and he saw three, four go for Ming, too. Bowstrings creaked as archers took aim.

Khoujin took off running. Arrows shrieked past him, striking the ground as he rushed one of the benders, knocking him out of the way before they could pen him in. Ming took Lijin to one of the bushes along the stream, wielding no fire so they would not spot her easily in the dark. Khoujin ran after the men pursuing her and slammed fire into the back of a spearman, leaving him to run screaming for the water.

They turned to face him now and he went at them with burning hands and fireballs. As they fell around him he put his hands out to burn or break whatever moved, and came face-to-face with Ming, wild-eyed and about to use the fire daggers in her hands.

For half a heartbeat they sagged with relief. Then bowstrings twanged and Ming tackled him into the bushes, and they fell into leafy darkness as arrows split the air over their heads.

"Come on." Ming rose to her knees and crept over to Lijin, whose breath trembled in and out in the dark. She coaxed the boy on and Khoujin followed, watching their backs and tensed to call up fire at the fall of a hair.

They rounded the bend in the water, the arrows silent now as the assassins gathered at the spur of hillside across the stream. One signal and they would rush out to ambush the main party. Khoujin forced his flames away as his shoulders bunched and his fists itched.

Feet pounded to his left and he jerked around, ready to defend themselves. But the shadowy and hooded form was running _away_ from the stream, toward the campsite.

With a wrench Khoujin recognized Kang, no mistaking the high-stepped way he ran like he was skipping over poop. What was he doing, did he realize Zuko wasn't with the other...

He stopped breathing when he saw the prince at the edge of camp, looking between the two sides of the hillspur like he didn't know where to turn. He turned to face the approaching Kang and backed away, holding his little knife out before him.

What was Zuko doing with that thing? He took Kang before, he should be bending fire right-

Wait. Did Zuko ever firebend since they left the village? The scolding and teasing that he was lazy and wouldn't practice, the anxiety behind his good-natured smile.

Stupid flaking peasant, never saw what was in front of him the whole time. Fire burst out of Khoujin's hands and he was jumping to his feet before he knew it.

"You weaselly little-" the flames grew in his hands as he ran after Kang, give that high-born backside the roasting it had earned many times over.

"No, don't!" As if Ming's scream were a signal there was a blow to his back, and another. He flicked a glance over his shoulder but saw no one, but for some reason it was getting harder to run. The fire faded from his hands as he slowed, his breathing all ragged. Blast it, why now? He needed to get to Zuko... Kang... Sa Ye...

There was another _thwack,_ this time in his chest. He found himself staring at a shaft of wood that sprouted there, feathers at the end like leaves on a sapling. He grabbed it, knowing only that he needed to get the thing out of him, _oh Spirits, the baby,_ but the pain was so bad he stumbled and his kneecaps thudded to the ground.

_I did something stupid, Sa Ye. Will you ever forgive me?_

* * *

_This isn't real._

Zuko held out a hand as if to stop the arrows as they sped toward Khoujin, but he was too far away and no fire rushed from his hand. The arrows struck Khoujin one by one, making him twist in place. Zuko's knees refused to bear his weight, and spilled him onto the mud on his hands and knees.

The sounds of battle drifted to his ears, Shun entangled in a knot of violence behind him, the shrieks and shouts across the stream, the silence of the ambush group who waited to take his people by surprise. The hooded firebender pounding across the ground to him, the redness crackling in his hands.

It pooled up from the pit of Zuko's stomach, burned its way up his chest and throat until he opened his mouth and let it out. He spat flames into the darkness, searing its trace into his vision. Then fire ran up his spine and down his arms and legs frantic for release.

He jumped to his feet, legs sliding apart and one hand sweeping up to curve above his head, the other thrust out before him. The assassin swept back a flaming hand to strike, only to spring away from Shun's blades.

Zuko snapped forward, took a leaping step and threw both hands out with a cry. The fire jumped from him like a hungry thing, tracing a burning path in the night.

The bush at the edge of the stream went up in an instant, just as the archer rose from cover to fire at Ming who ran to Khoujin's side. Both archer and bush exploded in light and heat, the fire splashing everywhere until the stream was lined with flames that licked the underbelly of the clouded sky.

The human torch that used to be an archer, dropping a bow reduced to kindling, staggered from concealment to drop into the stream. He did not move again as the flames subsided and smoke rose from him, black and rank.

In the burning light people turned around, the glint of eyes and weapons and flame. "That's him!" "Prince Zuko!"

They were all coming to him, friend and foe, everything breaking into chaos in a way he never intended. The enemy converged on him, crossing the stream and campsite. Guards tried to stop them, and there was hand-to-hand fighting in knee-deep water and between the collapsed tents, men rolling in the mud throwing punches and a spearman pushing an impaled firebender to the ground.

Attendants and townsfolk scattered like broken glass, some to hide in the gully, others to wade into battle, still others to flee into the night. Some would go help the wounded. Khoujin, Agni preserve, Khoujin. Zuko's vision blurred, the red and gold and black running together until the night was beautiful again.

Shields slammed closed around him, his world narrowing to uniformed backs and the insides of shields, the sour smell of fear. In the gaps that appeared when his men lifted their shields against arrows or braced against a charge Zuko saw slices of nightmare, a hand raised in a final plea or futile defense, Shun outlined in fire and tumbling across the ground to douse it. A sword shimmered in and out of sight at a still-smoking Shun, driving him to the hooded firebender who swept a plume of fire at him.

A sound reached Zuko under the clamor, a hitching _uh-uh-uh-uh _that shook and broke but never stopped. It took him a moment to realize, to admit it was a woman weeping, the voice of a loss that could never be made whole.

He wished he didn't recognize the voice, but he did.

_I did this,_ he thought. _I brought him here, all of them. _The sounds of battle were like a lullaby, a guide into the dark waters of rest.

They would die here. Already the guards around him moved in as the enemy closed, the shields scraping against each other. The assassins would leave no witnesses after they were done with the combatants. Would it be a clean death for him, or would they capture him first and do things because they could? He still had his knife—no, he had dropped it. He could ask the favor of a guard before the end. He would rather go fighting, though, if it came to that.

He did not know how much time passed while the same thoughts ran circles in his head, hours or minutes. First he thought it was his imagination, that disturbance at the edge of the battle. Then it grew louder, the tread of rhinos and cries of alarm.

"Attack!" The ripples reached him as the defense roiled and turned, the gaps between the shields revealing rhino-borne riders in Fire Nation uniform cutting down the false bandits in their mismatched armor. Arrows felled men and punched holes in the lines of attack. Groups of the assassins were herded and cornered, speared and burned in a cloud of flaming fabric and cooked meat.

Zuko realized he was cheering with his men, the shouts scraping his throat and making his head ring. Let them suffer, fear, die. Teach them what it was like.

Quiet returned as the night waned to grey dawn, the remaining sounds of battle a distant echo. Rhinos approached with their heavy animal scent and the tang of metal and blood. At a challenge from his guards booted feet hit the ground in a clunk of armor, then trampled the mud toward the wall of shields around him.

"I would speak with the Prince," said a military voice with iron behind it, the ring of command. "Is he safe?"

"Let me through." Zuko coughed to clear his throat and parted the shields. His men stepped aside so he could walk into the wan sun and morning wind.

Master Lu bowed to him against the backdrop of the smoking campsite. He had his bow and quiver slung over his shoulder, and the cloth wrapped around his head was spotted with blood. "My Prince." He stepped aside, swaying in place.

An armored officer with greying hair came up knelt at Zuko's feet. Behind him other uniformed men did the same, in two even rows of crisp uniforms while Zuko's muddied, ragged guards looked on.

"Colonel Jeong Myeong of the Thirty-Second Division, Southeast Mainland Defense Garrison." The head officer prostrated himself to touch his forehead to the ground. "You honor us, your Highness."

"How did... did my father send you?" A spark lit in Zuko's chest, fingers of warmth against his aches and pains.

"We are your royal father's men," said Colonel Jeong, choosing every word he spoke. "We are only happy not to be too late."

Zuko stopped himself from snapping at the colonel. _Not too late?_ It was not Colonel Jeong's fault, he told himself. He came all this way to save his prince.

"So we're safe?" Zuko's voice shook on the last word, so fragile a hope.

Jeong raised himself so he knelt with his hands on his knees. "My men are hunting down the remainder of your assailants as we speak. We will escort you to the garrison at the Gates of Azulon, where a contingent of the Royal Precinct will receive that honor."

"Thank you for your service, Colonel. I owe you more than I could repay." Zuko fought to keep his voice steady. "Please rise."

Jeong stood and bowed from the waist before he backed away. Zuko looked over the ruins of his camp where men lay tumbled together like sleeping siblings. The stream ran shining over unmoving bodies, and across the water townsfolk huddled in fearful clusters.

He dragged his eyes down the flow of the stream, past the spur of hill to where Khoujin lay on the bank as though sleeping, Sa Ye holding his hand. She no longer wept, and never looked up as if her whole world were in that unmoving face.

Zuko's eyes were hot in his head as the sun cleared the hills, his tears scorching as they fell. "Thank you..."

The camp stirred, men picking their way across the site to look for survivors, the townsfolk looking about trying to believe it was over. Colonel Jeong's men distributed supplies and joined in the hundred little things to be done before there was anything like normalcy again. The rhinos lowed in their enclosure and somewhere in the trees a wingcat mewed, could someone come get her, please?

He would, he just needed a moment. Change out of these muddy night clothes and talk to his people, give whatever courage they might take from him. A moment, while the sun climbed over the destruction and soaked him in its blessing fire.


	25. Chapter 10: Flames in the Night 4 of 4

Note: This one's for Stingmon, whose comments about Yenzi revealed a new dimension to the character I had not thought of.

* * *

They burned him at midday with eight others, under a grey sky streaked with pale sunlight. Master Lu read out his name as he had for all the fallen, listing his achievements in defending his home village of Tamalan and giving his life in valiant service for Prince Zuko and his countrymen. He was survived by his father Sanwai, one brother, and two sisters, eleven nephews and nieces, and his wife Deng Sa Ye and their unborn child. He would be missed.

Master Lu nodded to Sa Ye who stood before the bed of firewood, the unlit torch in her hand too large for her. She held it out to be lit by a guard, but hesitated before the pyre.

For a long moment she traced her gaze over Khoujin's features, before she reached out to touch the flaming brand to the pyre. As the flames licked over him she held out a hand as if in supplication, then clenched it into a fist and pressed it to her chest.

The heat grew as firebenders took over to build the fire, and Ming limped over to lead Sa Ye away. The Tien family looked on with the other townsfolk, patches of Lijin's soft brown hair burnt away, his face bandaged in places and shiny with burn salve. Zuko stood flanked by his guards, the tiredness smudging his face.

Nine eulogies for nine pyres lined along the beach, each with a name and a life, achievements and family. The fires wavered like silk so fine the mourners could see through to the sky and sea beyond, the bending-fed heat a glow on their faces as flesh vaporized in a shimmer above the flames.

Afterward the crowd scattered without direction, away from the pyres where the able-bodied scraped up the remainders of their comrades. Zuko walked among clusters of silence and conversation, Shun by his side, until he spotted Lijin standing with his parents. Zuko's feet dragged in the sand as he approached them, shoulders tensing as if he expected a blow at any moment.

"Master Tien. Madam An." He nodded to them, receiving bows in return. "...Lijin." Lijin bowed, then glued himself to his mother's leg and stared down at the sand. "I wanted to tell you how sorry I am. I didn't know you were there in the bushes, and it was careless of me to-"

"Get away from him."

They turned to see Yenzi approach from the camp. She came to stand between Lijin and Zuko, her jaws clenched and her voice flat. "You burned my brother."

"Tien Yenzi!" Shiri snatched her daughter's arm, but Yenzi shook her off.

"What kind of a prince are you, to put your own people in danger?" Zuko flinched at her words as though she had struck him. "Didn't you think what might happen if you played with fire?"

Shun took a step toward Yenzi, but Zuko waved him off. "You think I wanted this?" He clenched his fists and glared up at her. "You think I don't care? My friend _died_ rescuing your brother."

Yenzi cut him off with a bitter laugh. "He wasn't your friend. He was some peasant boy you happened to-"

"You dare!" Zuko crossed the three paces between them in a bound and grasped the front of her shirt, dragging her slack-jawed face down to eye level. "Don't you dare tell me who my friends are!"

"Prince Zuko." "Yenzi!"

"Stop it!" A scream pierced through the cries of remonstration and alarm. Lijin's hands were clapped over his ears and his eyes looked straight ahead as he chanted, "Stop it, stop it, stop it..."

"Prince Zuko." Shiri collapsed to her knees before Zuko, grasping at the hem of his tunic with trembling hands. "Please, I beg mercy. If you can overlook my daughter's insolence this once..."

Zuko tore his gaze away from Lijin to look down at Shiri, and then at Yenzi's shocked face. He released her as though she burned him, shaking his head as he backed away from them. "No. That's not, I'd never-" he came to a stop, pulling a hand down his face. "How could I ever hurt any of you?"

His gaze went to Lijin, whose father had turned him away and knelt talking in his ear, to Yenzi who stared at him as if at a stranger, to the smoking pyres down the beach. "How could I... hurt..." His face stilled. A snort burst out of him, then a giggle, and all at once he was doubled over in wild laughter.

"Prince Zuko." Master Lu thrust people aside in his haste to come to Zuko's side. He put an arm around the prince and spun him away from the horrified looks, half carrying a stumbling Zuko to his temporary tent down the beach. Shun followed, a hand on his sword with nothing to kill. Gasps and sobs came through Zuko's laughter, and soon the beginning of a wail.

"Yenzi." She started, still staring after Zuko as his attendants ushered him into his tent. "Honey, are you all right?"

"Uh? Yeah." Yenzi shook her head and smoothed down the front of her shirt with the hand-sized singe mark. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Shiri sighed as she brushed the sand from her skirt. "We will discuss this. Later. Come along, we're going."

Yenzi nodded, lowering her gaze. She glanced at Prince Zuko's tent, her mouth and throat working. Then she snapped her mouth shut and trotted after her parents and brother.

* * *

"How fares the Prince?"

Master Lu did not answer for a moment as he navigated his rhino around a boulder in the path. What did he say to a question with so many possible answers, and just as many he could not give?

"Grieving," he said at last. "We lost too many in the night."

"Aye." The Colonel turned his eyes to the road. "I wish I could have come sooner." The clatter of wagons and the thump of feet behind them almost buried his words.

"If it were not for you, Colonel, we would be dead by now." Lu turned to look at Jeong's face in profile, the crags of his nose and cheekbones and the valleys of his eyes. Searching, in spite of himself, for signs of the face that was said to be plastered on wanted posters all over the Colonies.

"It was a fortuitous warning," said Colonel Jeong, meeting Lu's gaze over the five feet of space between them and the sway of their rhinos. "From a mutual acquaintance, I believe." The face was narrower than his infamous cousin's, the chin more pointed and the eyes farther apart. Still, Lu saw the family resemblance, and he had no doubt others did as well.

"I am most grateful." Lu tuned to the dirt track that wound west through the foothills and fields. So his message to Iroh brought Jeong and his men to them, but what of his false report to the palace? Could he have prevented the attack had he sent Prince Zuko's accurate location to the Firelord? It was a question that had cost him more than one night of sleep, and he knew it would cost him more.

"If it is any comfort," Lu started at the closeness of the voice; the Colonel had reined his rhino close to his flank during his revery. "You did the right thing, Master Lu."

"It is a great comfort." Lu lowered his voice to a murmur. "But perhaps I should have done more, stopped this thing before it happened." The words were ashes in his mouth.

Colonel Jeong snorted. "Have you seen the assassins left on the battlefield?" He was doing his best to forget. "Dead on their own swords, and the benders... no enemy fire can eat a man from the inside out." Lu's stomach churned at the memory of those bodies like gutted houses.

"Those men were fanatics." Jeong Myeong looked ahead at the road, his mouth set. "I doubt anyone could have stopped what happened." Lu wondered if the Colonel was remembering his uncle Jeong Hwan, the deserter Jeong Jeong's father who had taken responsibility for his son's actions in the most final way imaginable. All things considered the Jeong clan got off light, the gossip went, thanks to the father's suicide by fire.

"Yet those who could run, did so." The scouts estimated that ten to fifteen fled the scene of battle once the Colonel and his men turned its tide. Their hope of finding the source of the attack lay in capturing the survivors, and the possible evidence from the corpses. That was the reason Lu had ordered the enemy dead buried instead of cremated, not to 'let them rot like mudslugs' as some of the men insisted.

Ugly language against Earth Kingdom subjects aside, the attackers were not from the peoples they warred with but of their own. Perhaps that hurt more than anything, and Lu understood the anger.

"Those survivors are why I would be more comfortable if we were at full strength." Jeong eyed the shadows of the hills and the trees in their path with a soldier's suspicion. "We did not have many left to start with."

"Prince Zuko was adamant the civilians be sent home with a contingent protecting them." Master Lu cringed at the memory. "He felt very strongly on the matter." When he and Shun tried to dissuade Prince Zuko, half the camp heard the prince shouting that it was an order, not a request. The other half knew within the hour, if not in minutes.

Lu thought the Colonel's inscrutable eyes softened when he answered. "Your boy- the Prince will be all right." Jeong inclined his head. "Forgive me, Master Lu. Military manners."

Lu raised a hand to indicate no apology was necessary. "It heartens me to hear it."

"I have seen recruits after their first battle. The anger and the silence, it comes to them all. Then there are more battles." The bristled brows knit together. "They learn to live with it."

Master Lu wondered why this did not reassure him. "Are they-" he fought the words, wanting and not wanting to ask. "Are they ever the same?"

"No." Colonel Jeong took the reins and spurred his beast ahead. "You must excuse me, I hear my scouts approach."

Lu followed to hear what news the Colonel's men might bring, conscious of a knot in a corner of his chest—for his boy, as the Colonel had called him, the things he was forced to endure and the young man he must grow into. Master Lu knew he could not have protected Zuko forever. One day he might even forgive himself for failing to do so.

* * *

"Is he asleep?"

Sa Ye gasped and missed her footing on the step of the covered wagon. Shun caught her easily, and released her the moment she had her balance. "Be careful."

"Spirits!" She put a hand to her chest to calm herself. "Don't scare me like that. It's not good for the baby."

"Nothing on this journey was." Shun did not look at her but at a spot to the right of her head. "That is partly what I want to discuss. Come." He turned away.

"Why?" Sa Ye crossed her arms over her abdomen, the red splotches on her swollen face vivid next to mourning white. "We've never talked. Do you even know my name?"

"Your name is Deng Sa Ye," he said with his back to her. "If you do not know, mine is Shun Li."

"If you want to say something, say it here." Sa Ye's eyes narrowed. "Prince Zuko might wake up and look for me."

"All right." In one fluid motion Shun was facing her. "I want to know why you are going to the capital and not home."

Sa Ye's eyes widened, and she looked about at the prince's retinue in their rest. She stepped away from the wagon toward Shun, hissing, "I don't have to explain anything to you."

"You do when you travel in the prince's carriage." Shun looked at her without a flicker in his face. "You cannot expect that it would go unremarked."

Sa Ye looked at him first in confusion, then in comprehension and finally outrage. "I'm—I was a married woman, and I'm having a baby." Shun gave a sidelong glance at the people turning around to look, and she struggled to lower her voice. "The prince is a child, like a little brother!"

"That is both unlikely and disturbing." Shun sounded like he was discussing the taste of his tea. "I understand you first met him in his bedroom."

"How did you- that wasn't the first- that is completely-" Sa Ye cut herself off with a "nng!" of frustration. "All right, let's go."

He led her away between the wagons and rhinos into the sunlit forest, up a slope where they could see the camp but not hear it.

"Are we far enough for me to shout at you?" Sa Ye asked through gritted teeth.

"You could strike me if you want." Shun turned to her. "But not the face. I don't care to explain any bruises."

"I don't trust you not to go all crazy if I hit you." She kept distance between them, her arms around her middle. Shun watched her in silence.

"Do you people have anything better to do than gossip?" The words burst out of her as she rounded on him. "You think I begged to follow the prince so I could-" she shook her head, unable to go on.

"You said you would throw yourself in the sea if he sent you back."

She swallowed. "I had to. He wouldn't have let me stay otherwise, not after... Khoujin..."

"I admit I know little of your home village, but is that so terrible? Your father is there, but so are Elder Lao and Khoujin's family." When she said nothing, he pressed: "Would he have wanted this for you?"

"Don't tell me what he would have wanted," Sa Ye lifted her head to meet his eyes. "Yes, I happen to know he would agree with me. He was my husband-"

"-on paper, only because Master Lu drew up the certificate after the funeral." Shun raised a hand before she could protest. "It was a good decision. You and your child deserve the compensation and support payment. But the story of your marriage on the road is as thin as the paper that proves it."

"Who cares?" Sa Ye hunched into herself, the heat gone from her voice. "I'm no one. Who'd take the time to find out if I was actually married?"

"The same people," said Shun, ending every word with a small emphasis, "who would want to know why Prince Zuko spends so much time with a pregnant serving girl."

Sa Ye covered her face with her hands. When she lowered them her eyes were downcast, her face calm. "So I'm walking into a nest of viper-rats."

"Then you'll reconsider?"

"No." She turned back the way they had come. "But Prince Zuko won't be spending so much time with a pregnant serving girl." She wiped her face with her hands and walked down the slope, stepping over roots and stones in her path.

"I'm sorry," Shun told the green air of the forest, and receiving no response followed Sa Ye back down.

* * *

"Zuko's not dead." Azula stalked around the tea room, her lips drawn back in a snarl. "It isn't true!"

"It's only a rumor, you know." Ty Lee tried to smile, and flinched when the flower arrangement on the table before her burst into flame.

Ty Lee snatched up the teapot and dumped its contents on the fire to douse it, while Mai looked past her at Azula. "We don't know anything yet." Mai's voice caught, and she cleared her throat. "Calm down."

"I know. It can't be true. It can't." Azula wandered over to the table, smoothing her hair away from her face. Mai and Ty Lee relaxed and met each others' eyes through the smoke from the burned flowers.

Ty Lee screamed when Azula snatched the teapot from her hand and smashed it against the wall in a trail of jasmine tea and blue flames. "That mud-eating peasant!" Azula's voice slammed into the silence. "I'll melt his eyes out of his traitor head."

Tears rolled down Ty Lee's face as she bit her lips to keep herself quiet. Mai went over to put an arm around her, her eyes on Azula who glared down at the remains of the shattered pot, seething, before she whirled around and left.

"What was that about?" Mai muttered as Ty Lee started to hiccup. She handed Ty Lee a handkerchief and patted her back without looking at her. As Ty Lee wiped her eyes and blew her nose Mai went to stand at the window, looking east far beyond the palace walls and the city below.

* * *

Shiri flopped down on a chair in the orange glow of the lamp, resting her chin on her clasped hands. "Well, he's out." She stifled a yawn. "I should get back there in case he wakes up again."

"I'll stay with him." Tien Shou gave her a squeeze on the shoulder. "Get some rest."

"Is he going to be okay?" Yenzi looked up from her book spread on the kitchen table, though she had not turned a page for the past half hour.

"The burns will heal soon enough." Shiri glanced over at her. "I really should have done something for that Ming, thanked her better. If she hadn't pulled him out of there, wounded as she was..." she trailed off, staring into the orange-lit gloom.

"If crying hysterically while cutting off her air isn't thanks enough, I don't know what is." A corner of Yenzi's lips twitched. "Believe me Mom, she prays you're never that grateful again."

"Yes, not my brightest moment." Shiri's chuckles faded away. "Which reminds me..."

"Agni, I know." Yenzi dropped her forehead into her hands. "I was wrong, thoughtless etc. Can we not talk about it?"

"I know your upbringing was a tad short of opportunities to mingle with royalty." Tien leaned closer to Yenzi. "But didn't you know it could be hazardous to your health, talking to a prince the way you did?"

"I know Dad, I-"

"For a moment I thought he was going to burn you before my eyes." Shiri looked down at the table. "I don't know what I might have done if he tried."

"He wouldn't do that!" Yenzi lifted her chin. "Zuko's a good kid."

"That's 'Prince' Zuko to you, and let's leave out the 'kid' part for public consumption," said Tien. "But that brings us to our second point."

"You know it's not all right to talk to anyone like that, prince or no." Shiri reached out and took Yenzi's hand. "I know you're angry about Lijin. So was I, but that's no excuse to hurt a boy who was already in pain."

"I know, it's just-" Yenzi's hand closed tight around her mother's. "We shouldn't have been there in the first place. Lijin wouldn't be having nightmares if it weren't for... for..."

"If it weren't for Prince Zuko?" Shiri tucked a tendril of hair behind Yenzi's ear.

"If it weren't for his meddling." Yenzi stared down at a diagram in her book. "He made a lot of people angry with what he did at that village."

"Maybe," Shiri sighed. "But he couldn't have known-"

"That's my point." Yenzi scraped her chair back and paced across the kitchen floor. "He acted without knowing, like when he burned Lijin. He's a prince, not some kid, and he didn't think of the consequences!

"But-" she took a shuddering breath. "I said all those things to him, and he sent his remaining guards to see us home. Even though we didn't need them, and he did." Her laughter came out choked. "And I keep thinking, is he _trying_ to make me feel awful?"

"I don't think so." Tien scratched his stubbly chin. "That's why he's so good at it."

"That's probably it, Dad." Yenzi's smile crumpled as she lowered her face into her hand. "I am such a bitch."

"Oh hey, kiddo." Tien stood with a sidelong glance at Shiri. "Don't say that."

Shiri crossed the kitchen to her daughter and gathered her into her arms. "We all are, at some point or another." She stroked Yenzi's head, then kissed it as Yenzi sobbed into her shoulder.

As if in answer a cry came from Lijin's room. Tien gazed for a moment on his wife and daughter, gave Shiri a thumbs-up, and went to comfort his son.

Shiri laid her cheek against Yenzi's, whispering that they were together, all of them safe, and that everything was going to be all right, over and over again as though she needed to believe it, too.

* * *

The old man hovered under the eaves of the guardhouse roof despite numerous invitations to come in and even the enticement of freshly-brewed tea. He accepted an extra cloak against the chill and a steaming cup, but would not enter the warmth of the guardhouse to wait. He shifted his weight from foot to foot and breathed flames to warm his hands, peering into the rain-streaked night outside the palace gates as though to burn away the darkness with his gaze.

"Are you sure the signal was correct, Cheng?" he asked the guard next to him, a woman who stood straight as the sword on her hip. "It is half an hour since they passed the outer gates."

"That's normal, General Iroh." The guard held her hands over the smoking brazier before her. "It is raining, and at night a party their size has to clear smaller checkpoints." She glanced with longing at the golden glow inside the guardhouse. "You should wait inside."

"Perhaps I should go to them." Iroh paced three paces to each side, squeezing his hands together in front of his ample middle. "Something may have happened."

"No, the patrol would have raised an alarm." Cheng turned her head, concentrating. "I think I hear them, General."

Iroh held his breath to listen and his face brightened at the clatter of wheels on pavement. He left the shelter of the eaves before Cheng could stop him, the rain flattening his grey hair to his balding head.

The figure at the head of the procession looked up from his place on the canopied saddle of his rhino, his ponytail swinging as he focused on the rotund outline hurrying through the torchlit strands of rain.

"Uncle." Zuko's voice cracked as he climbed from the rhino's back. He tripped, righted himself, and took off running with water splashing at every step. "Uncle!"

"Prince Iroh." "General Iroh." The murmur went through the procession as guards and attendants one by one dismounted or climbed down from their wagons to kneel in the rain, then put their faces to the ground in obeisance. The guard who came chasing after Iroh with an umbrella dropped to one knee at the sight of Zuko, her fist over her heart.

Zuko threw himself at his uncle even as Iroh wrenched his nephew to his chest. They clung to each other, Zuko with his forehead against Iroh's shoulder and his hands bunched in Iroh's robes, Iroh's face contorting with emotion as he gave Zuko a thump on the back, then another. The rain washed over them in a low roar that filled the world, and the shadows slithered and slid in the spaces between the fires.

* * *

**End of ****Part 1: Dragon Dreams**

The next chapter begins **Part 2: Shadows. **We are halfway to the end, probably more than half in length. Thank you so much for reading!

* * *

_Next: Five men, one dream._


	26. Interlude 3: Dreams of Fire

Note: Shyu is the "good" Fire Sage from the Book 1 episode "The Spirit World, Part 2." The English interpretation of the I Ching is from the Wengu Chinese Classics & Translations site. I'll post the URL to my LJ. Also, Amy Raine is back, yay! Many thanks to her for looking my scribblings over despite all the real life that was going on. This Interlude would have been extremely confusing without her input.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Interlude 3: Dreams of Fire**

* * *

第五十日卦 震

Sign Fifty-One: Shock

震上震下

Shock above and shock below

The hexagram Chên represents the eldest son, who seizes rule with energy and power. This movement is so violent that it arouses terror. It is symbolized by thunder, which bursts forth from the earth and by its shock causes fear and trembling.

易經

I Ching, the Book of Changes

* * *

"But what could it mean?"

The firepit in the center of the meditation chamber floor sent out flickers of light that mingled with the measured voices. Shyu turned his eyes to the floor, which needed sweeping, as he listened to the theories and interpretations handed around and picked apart like toys.

"The crown has been missing for over a century. What significance could it have?" The Head Sage tutted like an irritated turtlegator. Shyu sensed that anyone who could explain away this intrusion into his comfortable existence would rise in his favor.

"It represents the link between the royal house and the Avatar. Hardly an insignificant thing." That would be Zenglo, too scholarly to be diplomatic.

"Not the Avatar, but the previous one. It is an artifact specific to Roku."

"It signifies his descendants, perhaps? But his home island lies under volcanic ash and the Dao clan is scattered to the winds..."

And so it went. Shyu stopped listening at some point, picking up a stray word or theory and giving the expected "hmm" or "ahh." He found his mind wandering to the dream they had all shared the night before, the reason for this meeting first thing in the morning. Its every detail was fixed in his mind as with all clairvoyant dreams, the sleeping visions that came along once or twice a decade and only in times of upheaval. He hoped this one did not signify another Firelord's death.

Recalling the dream he felt once again the weight and metallic cold of the headpiece in his hand, the stylized flame of pure gold on each side. He had actually considered wearing it, out of curiosity after seeing it on images of Avatar Roku all his life. He now wondered if this urge was a part of the "official" dream or a product of his own mind. He had left it out when the Sages wrote down their dreams to compare details, and it was not in any of the other accounts.

Putting it on became a moot point, or perhaps a more attractive idea to some, within moments of dream-time. The gold flames on the headpiece writhed and flowed until they turned into real flames, and then a conflagration. At this point every dreamer realized he was standing in the courtyard of the Fire Palace. The fire jumped from the headpiece and spread in every direction, landing on the roofs and setting all it touched ablaze. The Fire Palace burned as the dreamer watched, helpless.

"...to the palace?"

"Yes?" Shyu looked up, realizing he was being spoken to.

"I said, could it mean the crown is going to the palace?" His brother Sages were looking at him with varying degrees of disapproval and curiosity.

"Perhaps." He tried to sound weighty. "It seems somewhat literal an interpretation, but sometimes the simplest answer serves best."

"Then it is agreed." The Head Sage's tone took on the briskness of relief. "We inform the Firelord of this portent."

Shyu remembered agreeing to no such thing. "Are you certain that is necessary? If Roku's crown is already going to the palace..."

"We cannot be certain of that, and the dream indicates possible danger to the royal palace, perhaps the royal line." The Head Sage's eyes bored into him. "Do you recall the last time we received a vision of such import?"

"Of course." Shyu bowed where he sat. How could he, or any Sage, forget? When he closed his eyes he still saw it sometimes, the dragon falling out of the sky with a crash that shook the ground out from under him. But his dream-self had found no dragon when he rushed to the scene, only a single flawless lotus blossoming in the wreckage.

His brother Sages believed the dream a portent of Azulon's death, and perhaps that was the obvious conclusion as it had come on the very night the old Firelord died. Clearly, the Sages maintained, the dragon's fall symbolized the end of the Firelord's reign, and the white lotus, the spirit-flower in the color of mourning, meant his death. Shyu had his doubts, though he was unsure what else to make of the vision.

He fell deeper into thought as the other Sages discussed how to give the news to the Fire Palace. Once, the Sages' first instinct would not have been to run to the Firelord. Once there had been an Avatar whom it was their order's duty to give counsel and aid to. If the Avatar lived as the fire-signs still said, why the silence? Shyu knew not if he would ever serve a Fire Sage's calling again, or remain silent as the Avatar himself while the years passed him by.

The matter of the dream vision disposed of, the Sages rose to file out of the meditation chamber. Shyu did the same, reflecting again on the flames in his dream, the hunger and the heat that had devoured the pinnacle of worldly power. He looked sidelong at his brothers, wondering if the thoughts they hid behind blank faces were anything like his.

The light of the torch next to the door fell across his face as he left the room, its glow staying with him in the darker light of the hallway. The thought followed him as he walked, that fire was the element of renewal as well as destruction. What new power stirred in the belly of the world, to burn away the old edifices and reshape the very earth?

Whoever the agent of that change, a member of the line of Roku or a bearer of that legacy, Shyu wished them spirit-luck for they would need it. In the gloom of the hallway he moved onto his duties for the day, walking through a half-light heavy with portents that were not his to read.

* * *

_Next: An inconvenient departure, and money changes hands over a bloody affair._


	27. Chapter 11: Meetings

Note: In this story I did not follow the common interpretation that Ty Lee is one of identical septuplets. I had plotted the story and written passages about her sisters before the possibility of septuplets, never mind identical ones, crossed my mind. Since Ty Lee having older sisters is an excellent way to cut down on the work of creating original characters, I will go with my interpretation that the seven sisters are not all twins, though two or more of them may well be.

Also, I will try to do something different in place of epigraphs for Part 2, an "episode recap" rather than quotes from other works. The epigraphs will return in Part 3, but Part 2 is the plot-heaviest series of chapters and I thought the recaps might be more useful. My beta-reader Amy Raine wasn't sold on the idea and I tried to clarify things somewhat; tell me what you think!

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Part 2: Shadows**

* * *

Previously on _Shadow of the Dragon King:_

"I need these delivered to the Royal City." Elder Lao Tai indicated the headpiece and letter. "A woman by the name of Ty Sian, Assistant Lady Chamberlain at the palace." (Chapter 7: While He Was Sleeping)

"Are you willing to risk domestic instability? Or," the Firelord almost purred, "do you think the elite of this Nation should contribute their part to the war effort?" (Chapter 8: The Dragon Prince)

"You will watch my brother and report all his movements to me," said the princess, with her sweet little girl's face and a soul that hungered and was never sated. (Chapter 3: A Royal Departure)

Shun slipped the second scrap of paper into the message cylinder with Master Lu's letter. The girl was Prince Zuko's sister, what harm could she mean him? (Chapter 9: Excursions)

* * *

**Chapter 11: Meetings**

Sunlight bounded in arcs off the blade as Zuko swept it over his head then down in a swift strike. The perspiration on his skin held the sun's glow. Droplets of it flung through the air with the intensity of his movements, refracting the light in threads of brilliance.

"Third form." The blade split into two in Zuko's hands and he brought one up above his head, curling the other underarm against his body. He swept them down together, then up before advancing in a spinning motion, blades whirling one after the other in continuous attack and defense. He slashed the blades to either side with a clang, stabbed them one after another in the air, and held them out to his sides with his legs apart and bent at the knees.

"Stop." At the command Zuko went still except hard breathing. "You are using two swords." The words were an accusation.

Zuko turned to face his master, wiping his streaming forehead with a sleeve. "Uh, yes?"

"No." Shun strode over and snatched the blades from his hands. "The dao is not two blades but one. If you do not have unity of movement you have nothing. Like so." Without warning he swung the blades down at Zuko's legs, making him jump back sputtering. "And so." Shun crossed the blades and swiped them sideways in two arcs as he leapt forward. Zuko sprawled to his back with a surprised cry.

The guards stationed around the exercise yard ran up to impose themselves between Zuko and Shun, but Zuko waved them back. "Back to your places." He stood up and dusted himself off, glaring at Shun who stood with blades pointed toward the ground. "If he wanted to strike me, he would have."

This did not help the guards' comfort level at all as they tried to remonstrate with him. "Yes, yes, you think this is a bad idea. Why don't you go tell Father about it?" Seeing their hesitation, Zuko walked past them to stand before Shun. "Either that, or back to your stations." The guards looked at each other, then returned to their places by the wall.

"Smart move." Zuko crossed his arms over his chest. "Are you trying to get our lessons canceled?"

"As I recall, you were the first to attack me." Shun's gaze was level. "While I was protecting you from your enemies, your Highness."

"What, are we still on about this?" Zuko's mouth settled in an indignant line. "I told you, I knew I'd never touch you. I just needed to make you believe I was trying to." When Shun stayed silent, Zuko went on: "Was there any other way I could have made you let me go?"

"No." Shun swallowed. "But it was unwise. To test the reflexes of a trained..." he paused.

"Guard? Soldier?"

"Murderer." Shun walked past Zuko before the prince could comment, and spun to face him. "Now, try again." Shun tossed the blades to Zuko, who caught one but fumbled with the other. He kicked it up by the hilt and caught it midair instead, and looked pleased with himself until Shun spoke. "You let your guard down. Third form, twenty times."

"You," Zuko went into ready position again, "are the unkindest teacher I have ever had."

"We can stop anytime you wish, your Highness." Shun crossed his arms.

"To please you? I don't think so." Zuko grit his teeth and went through the exercise again. He was so engrossed he did not realize Shun was behind him until he was sprawling across the grass from a kick in the back.

"Your center of gravity is too high. Bend your knees, or you will be imbalanced." Shun looked down at the prince as he struggled to a sitting position. "You let your guard down again. Second form-"

"Twenty times, I know." Zuko ground the heel of his hand into his forehead.

"Thirty, for interrupting me." Shun caught sight of a guard signaling to him and turned away. "Start now."

Zuko was stabbing at the air with particular gusto when Shun returned. When Zuko caught sight of who he was with, his eyes widened before he smoothed his expression with an effort.

Applause drifted over to him as he concluded the exercise. "Very nice."

"Thank you." Zuko put the dao away and bowed to his uncle.

Iroh turned to Shun, still smiling in pride. "How long has he been learning?"

"A week now," Zuko answered instead, not looking at Iroh. "Since I returned."

"Isn't my nephew a quick study?" Iroh beamed at Shun and Zuko in turn. "A week!"

"He is not without promise," murmured Shun at the same time Zuko said with a scowl, "I'm not even good yet, there's nothing to fuss about."

The smile faltered on Iroh's face. Zuko shifted his feet while refusing to meet anyone's eyes, and Shun glanced between the two princes without moving.

"May I steal your student away for a few moments?" Iroh tucked his hands into his sleeves, his face once again serene but the light in his eyes dimmed.

"I need to train." Zuko turned his back on his uncle, drawing the dao.

"We are overdue for a break." Shun bowed to Iroh. "Make sure he drinks fluids."

"I'm fine!" Zuko spun to face Shun, thrusting his chin out at a belligerent angle. "I order you to continue."

They stared at each other until Shun inclined his head. "We are done for the day. We resume after I return from my day off, assuming you are ready to obey instructions."

Zuko was still trying to form a coherent response as Shun left.

"Zuko."

Zuko slapped his dao together and shoved it into the hilt slung across his back. "What do you want, Uncle?" He took a deep breath and bowed. "Forgive me. What did you want to talk about?"

"I have not seen you in days. Not since the night of your return, in fact." Iroh led him over to a table in the shade, where the servants had left fruit juice. "I was a little worried."

"That's kind of you, but I'm fine." Zuko sat down across from Iroh, tensed and ready to rise at any moment.

"How is firebending training?" Iroh stole glances at his nephew between sips of juice.

"Fine." Zuko frowned down at his cup and took a careful sip.

"Prince Zuko." Iroh's brows furrowed. "Is everything all right?"

"Yes." Zuko put down his cup with a thud, making Iroh jump. "Is that all you wanted to know?"

Iroh fingered his own cup for a moment before he met Zuko's eyes. "I understand you have been to see your father."

Zuko hunched over the table. "Yes."

"Zuko-"

"He welcomed me back. He was glad I'm okay. He-" Zuko looked away to the exit from the exercise yard. "I was so stupid. He worries for me. I worried him so much, that's why..."

Iroh reached for Zuko. "If you want to talk-"

"I don't." Zuko jumped to his feet. "Everyone wants me to talk about it, and I have nothing to say!" He met his uncle's helpless gaze and calmed himself with visible effort. "I'm sorry."

Zuko managed a stiff bow and walked away, leaving Iroh sitting slumped and alone. Finally Iroh stood and left the shelter of the rustling shade, the wrinkles cutting deep under his tired eyes.

* * *

Sa Ye ran down the thoroughfare to the east gate where a crowd had gathered to watch the procession. Guards on rhinos rode ahead of and behind the silk-draped palanquin, and a trail of wagons followed behind.

"Excuse me." She pushed her way through, apologizing all the while. "Sorry. Sorry..."

By the time she was at the front of the crowd the litter was at the gates, the lady leaning out to wave at the palace staff who had come to say good-bye. In fact, the lady was waving so exuberantly Sa Ye was afraid she might tip out and take the palanquin with her. The bearers holding it up by the bars were straining to keep it upright, the tendons standing out in their necks.

"Lady Ty Sian," she called as she followed the litter. Why was her voice so timid? A rabbitmouse would be louder. "My lady!" she tried again, but now people were getting in her way, running alongside the procession and shouting farewells and blessings. It was all she could do to keep her feet and not get trampled. She wound an arm around her middle against the jostling, and clutched her little package with the headpiece and the Elder's letter.

Now the only ways she could think of were desperate ones, like stopping the litter or putting her hand through a window, but she couldn't do even that with all these people between her and Ty Sian. Why had she spent the past three days laid up, too far gone to rise in the morning? After the blur of the first days here, the moment she settled down it was like someone had cut her strings and left her crumpled on the ground. The world still spun from time to time and sometimes she lost her footing for no reason at all, but at least she wasn't crying every time she had a moment to think—and remember.

The procession was slowing; Sa Ye tried to push closer to Lady Ty Sian, but no one was moving out of her way as all eyes fixed on the line of girls standing before the procession. Looking at them, Sa Ye stifled a giggle despite herself. Arranged in an even row from shortest to tallest, the girls and young women all looked like older or younger versions of each other—and for that matter they could all have been past portraits of Lady Ty Sian, with their wide eyes and button noses under a fall of tea-colored hair.

"Safe travels, Big Sister!" they chorused. As though they'd practiced it, and for all Sa Ye knew they had, the line fell gracefully back to stand along the path of the procession. Ty Sian stopped to greet each sister in turn, holding a hand, patting a cheek, shedding a tear. Then the palanquin swung onward, the guards closed in, and the whole procession started passing through the east gate toward the rising sun.

"Wait!" Sa Ye tried to follow. She couldn't let Ty Sian go now, not when she was so close. Once the lady was on her way to the Colonies it would be too late.

Sa Ye stumbled and caught herself just in time before she walked into the haft of a spear. She looked up its length at the guardsman mounted on his rhino, and she gulped at the hard look on face. She took two steps back and lowered her eyes, clutching the cloth-wrapped bundle to herself: she couldn't draw attention to herself and have her things searched. Maybe that would catch Ty Sian's attention, but what if she was accused of stealing the headpiece inside? What if it was confiscated from her?

Sa Ye watched the procession move out the gates toward the morning sun, the guardsman's rhino following with a grunt. The gates ground shut behind them, as final as failure.

She put a hand to her head, which felt like it would float away if she let it. Her stomach roiled. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to come bolting here the moment she heard about Lady Ty Sian leaving for the Colonies. All this carrying on couldn't be good for the baby, but nothing on the way here had been good for it. Someone once told her that, but right now she couldn't remember who.

Everything was strange to her, the walls, the people, the ground she stood on. It couldn't be her standing here, alone and far from home with a mission she couldn't tell anyone about, and having a baby in less than six moons. What was she even doing here?

"Are you okay?"

Sa Ye looked down to see one of the sisters from earlier, one of the younger ones who looked ten or eleven. She was beginning to be sure she was in a fever-dream. Why else would this young noblewoman be talking to her?

"You've got this..." the girl traced the her fingers through the air in squiggly lines. "This big dark tangle all around you. Why?"

'Big dark tangle' sounded about right. As for why... where did she start?

"I guess," she paused. 'My husband died' seemed a bit heavy for a child. "I guess because someone really important to me went away." As she said that something softened and melted in her chest, and the tears stung her eyes.

The girl's eyes grew even larger if that was possible. "Oh, me too, just now." Sa Ye started when the girl hugged her, the warmth of another person touching the cracks and empty spaces inside her.

"Ty Lee!" "There you were!" "Come on!"

The sisters arrived in a giggling, chattering swarm and swept their fellow away. Ty Lee waved over her shoulder as she went, and Sa Ye found herself waving back. So that was young Lady Ty Lee, Lady Ty Sian's sister. A strange child—she reminded Sa Ye of Elder Lao somehow. That brought back thoughts of home, but she didn't have time to be homesick. She had work to do.

Lady Ty Sian was out of reach for now, though who knew where this meeting with Ty Lee might lead. She could work on that, when she had the chance. For now, though, she had to focus on the nearer way to her goal.

_If the lady is no longer at her post,_ Lao Tai's voice said in her head, _trust no one else but take it directly to General Iroh._

"We're going to see the Dragon of the West, little one!" She laid a hand over her belly. At least, she hoped she could. She wasn't sure how many more disasters she could take.

* * *

Zuko's face split in a yawn as he plopped down on a bench in the garden of the royal residence, the morning birds busy calling to each other from the trees. Shao Mei drifted through the air behind him, chewing a lock of his loose hair. When he sat, the wingcat folded her wings and settled purring on his slumped shoulder.

"Quit it." Zuko pushed at his cat with the back of a hand, but she ignored him and burrowed into his hair. Zuko dropped his face into his hands with a groan and rubbed at his eyes.

"Didn't sleep well?"

Zuko looked at the tree across from him and froze at the sight of the dark-clad form that blended into the dappled shade. "Gah! Mai!" He backed up to the farthest corner of the bench away from her, combing his hair down with frantic fingers and entangling his annoyed cat in it. "What are you doing here?"

"Wow, that's not insulting at all." Mai leaned her head against the tree trunk, the corners of her lips lifting.

"No! I mean, it's so pretty to see you- great to see you..." he flushed as red as his shirt and looked away. "Stop it, Mei!" Mai raised an eyebrow. "Shao Mei." He lifted up the wingcat by the scruff of her neck, her teeth still clamped on his hair and her yellow eyes mutinous.

"Cat spit in your hair." Mai grimaced. "Nice."

"Yeah," he said, staring at her. "I mean, no!" He frowned as he fended Shao Mei off. "Wait, what?"

"Smooth as ever, Dumdum." They both turned to look at Azula saunter into the garden, a hand on her hip. "Enjoying home?"

"I was." Zuko narrowed his eyes. Shao Mei slithered down to his lap to crouch there, wary gaze on Azula.

"Oh, don't be a child." Azula made her way behind his bench and leaned on the backrest to loom over him. "I don't think I asked you about your trip. Did you have fun?"

Zuko jerked to his feet and walked away, carrying Shao Mei who clung to him.

"I didn't believe the rumors for a second, Zuzu," Azula called after him. "I knew you'd be okay, with so many people to die for you." Zuko's pace grew quicker until he was running from the garden.

"So sensitive, these teenagers." Azula shook her head as she straightened. "Don't ever be like that, Mai."

"Are we going?" Mai contemplated the throwing knives clenched between her fingers. There was a tiny line between her eyebrows, as though she were in pain.

"Yes." A smirk spread across Azula's face. "Yes, we are." She led the way, Mai putting her knives away and falling into step behind her.

* * *

"So, this is what it has come to." The screen of flames blazed high before the Firelord, its heat oppressing the room and making the courtiers shift in their seats. "Subjects of the Fire Nation raise their hands against the Firelord's son."

"Your Majesty, the perpetrators shall be caught and brought to justice." A courtier prostrated himself, and others took up his call.

"You have mouthed these platitudes at me, day after day." The Firelord's shadow wavered behind the fire, and then all at once the flames shifted aside and he walked out between them in a sweep of robes. "Yet day after day passes without results." Every head dropped in profound obeisance as Ozai walked down the aisle between the rows of courtiers, looking over his domain of prostrate bodies in the reddish murk.

"It has been eight days since Prince Zuko returned to us." Ozai's voice was low, yet every word carried in the stillness. "Eight days, and not so much as a suspect." He reached the end of the aisle and spun to face the audience room, his voice caressing the air. "How could this be? How, with all the might of the Fire Nation," the growing force of his voice made the courtiers shrink away, "do a prince's would-be assassins still walk free?" The ring of his words stayed in the air, freezing it despite the firelit closeness of the summer day.

"How, my lords?" Ozai walked back up the aisle, his gaze brushing over the prostrate forms, dismissing some, lingering over others. "If not a conspiracy?" A tremor went through the backs of the high lords.

"Insubordination breeds contempt for the throne." The words came in time with the Firelord's measured steps. "And contempt breeds," he turned to face the room again, "treason."

No one seemed to be breathing anymore. Ozai was the only flash of movement among blots of blackness.

"You grow fat on the blood of my subjects as they fight for the glory of our nation." The screen of flames behind him flared up with a _whoosh_. "Yet you refuse to make sacrifices of your own, mewling about tradition and privilege. What should I make of such reticence?" He walked up the steps of the dais and took his seat on the throne, the flames closing in front of him. "Will you tell me, Lord Zhao?"

Lord Zhao Man, Lieutenant Zhao's father, lifted his head from the front row. The speckled white in his hair and sideburns reflected the firelight. "Your Majesty, we are your humble servants."

"A fact of which I am well aware, as I have just expounded to you." The sneer was audible in the Firelord's voice.

Zhao snapped his gaze down to the polished floor. The perspiration glinted on his forehead. "Of course, your Majesty. Forgive me. We are only too willing to show our loyalty to the Nation."

Ozai said nothing, gesturing at Zhao to go on.

"While we believe taxation is a matter to be approached with caution and forethought-" the flames rushed upward, making Lord Zhao flinch, "-not for ourselves but for the good of the Fire Nation, we also realize we have been remiss in making the sacrifices necessary for the safety and prosperity of our great land." He put his forehead to the floor. "We can only beg your Grace's indulgence for our failings."

"I am willing, so long as your contrition is sincere." Ozai's voice was coaxing now, but none could mistake the threat behind his words.

"Thank you, your Grace." Lord Zhao raised himself a fraction. "That is why Lord Koe and myself and others beg you to accept a long-term loan that we hope will contribute to the war effort."

The Firelord's shadow behind the flames shifted as he sat back. "I am listening."

* * *

"I really should thank you, you know."

At the sound of her voice he turned from the window to face Azula standing at the door.

"You have done a great service for the Fire Nation, Guardsman Shun."

* * *

_Next: The stories we tell about the world and ourselves. And kitties!_

* * *

ANNOUNCEMENT: I've decided to subdivide the earlier chapters like I did for Chapters 9 and 10, since some of the chapters are plum too long. I'll be doing the division one or two chapters at a time every time I update, so the next five or so updates will be inflated in the sense that some of what look like new chapters are actually subdivisions of old chapters. On the bright side, there will be at least two actual new postings for each update (usually subdivisions of one chapter). I apologize for the inconvenience, especially because I'm pretty sure I'll be screwing things up at first and annoying everyone.


	28. Chapter 12: Stories 1 of 2

Note: Some of the events and characters in this chapter are drawn from, or influenced by, my earlier one-shot _The Alternative._ You don't need to read that story to understand this one, but it will add more meaning to this chapter and the next.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

* * *

Previously:

Zuko chewed on his lower lip. "I can't firebend. I haven't been able to, since Tamalan."

"I did not hear any of this." Shun cut him off with a slicing gesture of his hand. "I know nothing of it, do you hear?" (Excursions)

"Then it is agreed." The Head Sage's tone took on the briskness of relief. "We inform the Firelord of this portent." (Dreams of Fire)

"I will see to it the headpiece and letter reach Lady Ty Sian or Prince Iroh. I swear it," said Sa Ye, "on the life of my unborn child." (While He Was Sleeping)

* * *

**Chapter 12: Stories**

* * *

"So General Iroh spends a lot of time in the south wing tea room?" Sa Ye brushed Lan's hair to a shine in the muted afternoon sunlight through the rice paper window.

"Mm-hmm." In the mirror, Lan watched her hair being tied on top of her head. "I don't think you can even go to the south wing yet, though. Only servants with seniority work there."

"Is there anywhere else he goes often?" Sa Ye tried to keep the pleading out of her voice. It was becoming clearer every day that the Fire Palace was more than just big houses. There were rules here that divided the place like unseen walls.

"The gardens, maybe?" Lan rolled her eyes around to look up at Sa Ye pinning her hair in place for the topknot. "I'm sorry, I don't know him that well."

Sa Ye clamped down on a sigh. "It's all right."

"You came here with Prince Zuko, right?" Lan watched her hair being done up. "Why don't you ask him to introduce you? He'd be happy to help the daughter of a Ba Sing Se veteran meet with the General." Sa Ye's cover story for asking around about General Iroh actually sounded respectable when someone else said it.

"Thanks, I'll think about it." Sa Ye reached for a flame-adorned fastener. She had thought of it more than once, except... _ why Prince Zuko spends so much time with a pregnant serving girl. _The words blocked her way like a wall of fire. She might have to ask Zuko if there was no other way, but how could she approach him without causing problems for him? Maybe one of the guards would help her. But not Shun.

"So you saw Lady Ty Sian go off this morning," said Lan as Sa Ye fixed her hair in place with the fastener. "I'd have gone, too, but I had work. She's been running the place ever since- well, for three years now. Now she's gone, like that." She snapped her fingers.

"Do you know why she left?" Sa Ye turned the fastener in Lan's hair so the flame ornament faced front.

"Her husband got a new posting in the Colonies, but it's not like she had to follow him right away." Lan lowered her voice so Sa Ye had to lean in to hear. "I hear, what really happened was she had a falling out with some higher-ups."

Sa Ye's fingertips trembled in time to her quickening heartbeat as put the finishing touches in the topknot. "How?"

Lan just shrugged. "Who knows. It's best not to talk about it." She examined herself in the mirror, the way her hair and topknot framed her full-cheeked face with its crooked smile. "Wow, the girls were right—you're good at this."

Sa Ye ducked her head to hide a grin. "I can do hair." She sank down to her bed, letting her back rest a moment. Her mind kept returning to gnaw at the question. Why was Lady Ty Sian sent away just when she got here? Did someone know of her errand, or was it coincidence? "I just wish I knew anything else."

"Hey, I'm sure that's not true." Lan sat down next to her. "You're new, that's all."

A fuzzy warmth nudged past Sa Ye's feet and mewed. Lan bent down to pick up the black wingcat, holding him up to face level. "Isn't Mommy pretty, Shao Miao? Isn't she?" Shao Miao fluttered his wings and waved a white-tipped paw at Lan's face, making her giggle.

"You know, that cat..." Sa Ye remembered the question that had stayed with her since she first saw her roommate's wingcat.

"Lan." One of the senior girls, Zhuling, looked in the door, her braid wrapped around her head like always. "Kila wants to know if you can trade shifts with her."

"She's hour of the hog-monkey, right? Sorry." Lan gave her crinkle-nosed smile. "Special occasion, _if_ you know what I mean."

"I... I could do that." Sa Ye raised her hand. She lowered it, feeling stupid, but something about Zhuling demanded formality. "She can take mine tomorrow, at koala-sheep."

"You were?" Zhuling walked in, seeming to fill the room with her height and presence.

"Sa Ye. Deng Sa Ye." Sa Ye gulped and sat up straight.

"Oh yes, the new girl. Weren't you sick?" Zhuling sat down on Lan's chair, pinning Sa Ye with her gaze. "You had us worried."

"I..." Sa Ye felt the warmth in her chest. "Thank you, I'm fine now. And I know you and the other girls covered my shifts, I'll be sure to make it up to you."

"See? I told you she was nice." Lan put an arm around her. Sa Ye tensed at first, then let herself relax into the touch. "Ask her to do your hair sometime, Ling. You'll love it."

"My hair is fine." Zhuling touched her braid. "I'll tell Kila. She'll be grateful."

"Hey, stick around!" Lan gestured at her to sit. "Sa Ye was asking about our cats."

"Cats?" Sa Ye raised her eyebrows. "There are more of them?"

"Oh, the black ones. Yeah, I have one, too." Zhuling raised her voice to a girl who passed outside. "Tell Kila, Sa Ye's taking her shift today. She can take koala-sheep tomorrow instead."

"Who's Sa Ye?" The girl looked in. "Oh, the new girl. I will!" Then she was gone.

"Shao Miao looks a lot like Prince Zuko's cat, Shao Mei. Their names, too." Sa Ye watched Shao Miao curled up in Lan's arms, and felt sick with longing to return to just a fortnight ago when Zuko would tease Shao Mei, Khoujin beside him...

"That's because they're siblings," said Zhuling. "Mine is Shao Pang. He's the same color, but fat."

"Siblings?" Sa Ye's voice squeaked. "How?"

"Story time!" Lan cleared her throat and sat up. "See, two years ago Princess Azula got a birthday gift. A beautiful black wingcat, pregnant with kittens." Lan and Zhuling exchanged a look fraught with meaning that Sa Ye didn't understand.

"And... she gave the kittens to her brother and servants?" That was kind of her, but not much of a story.

"We wish." There was an edge to Lan's grin. "Prince Zuko offered to trade her for the cat."

"Why would he do that?" There was something she was missing here.

"Because he wanted it," said Lan, and went on before Sa Ye could ask more. "From what I hear, Princess Azula asked for a lot. Ironwood spear, a jeweled saddle-"

"-ceremonial armor, a century-old manuscript on firebending." Zhuling took up the list. "The armor didn't even fit her."

"The cat cost him all the presents from his birthday before and more, but he got her in the end." Lan scratched Shao Miao's neck, drawing a purr out of him. "The only thing Princess Azula wanted and he wouldn't trade was the knife his uncle gave him."

"And he handed out kittens to the servants?" Sa Ye smiled; that sounded like the boy she knew.

"He gave us servants the first pick." Lan sounded so proud about it. "Some of the palace functionaries' kids got them, too."

"And prince Zuko kept the mother cat?" Sa Ye's hand went to her own belly. She should tell the people here about her pregnancy, and soon. Maybe now was the time to bring it up.

Then she realized Lan and Zhuling were silent. When Lan did speak a chill went through Sa Ye.

"She died soon after having her litter. Some of the kittens, too." Lan's face darkened.

"I heard Lady Mai gave him back her kitten." Another look passed between Zhuling and Lan.

"The cats were sick?" Sa Ye's hand twisted in her skirt. "Why?"

"Who knows." Zhuling stood up, her hands rubbing at each other. "Bad luck, probably."

"Yeah." Lan stroked Shao Miao, watching him doze. "Probably."

But with her nose so sensitive ever since she got pregnant, Sa Ye caught the smell from Lan next to her—she was sweating, and not from the mild day.

"I should go. Work to do." Zhuling went to the door, then stopped. She backed into the room, away from the guards who walked in.

"Deng Sa Ye?" One of them turned to her where she sat, unable to move as her body trembled in time to her pounding heart. "You're coming with us."

* * *

"I don't think I even needed to hear most of this." Azula looked up from examining her nails. "I could have sat right here and told you how Zuko reacted to everything. Don't you have anything interesting for me?"

"Forgive me, Princess." Shun bowed his head. If he was feeling the effects of staying on one knee for the past half hour before her chair, he did not show it.

"Although, the strength of his reaction... so it was the bumpkin's death that set him off." She ran a thumb along the tip of her nails. Shun's shoulders tensed for a moment.

"What is it that you're not telling me, I wonder." Azula stood and walked around Shun, who knelt unmoving with his eyes on the floor. She stopped behind him and burst out laughing; his jaw clenched.

"You're a funny man, do you know that?" She came to stand in front of him. "You think keeping this one secret will somehow make up for blabbing everything else, including his location outside Haishan." Shun's breath caught.

"Your finest moment." Azula threw herself back on the chair. "The attack wouldn't have gone through without your information, you know." Shun started and looked up; she shrugged. "Yes, I'm admitting it. You think they'll take your word for it? And I don't recall giving you permission to look at me." He dropped his gaze to the floor.

"Oh, now that's an idea." Azula pulled her legs up, hugging her knees in glee. "Why don't you tell _Zuko_ I was behind it? He'll be thrilled to find out how you know. Or maybe," she leaned forward until she spoke in his ear. "I'll tell him myself."

Shun's hand went to his side, clutching at a hilt that wasn't there. Azula leaned back, shaking with laughter.

"Do you want to kill me? After treachery, murder. I knew there was a reason I liked you." Shun dropped his hand to the floor, his head bowing lower.

"Here." A pouch jangled and spilled as it landed before him, the red gold coins giving off a fiery glow in the sun. "For your service at Haishan. Double for keeping Zuko's head on his shoulders, for all the good it does him. Call it," she simpered, "a sister's gratitude."

"I don't want it." Shun's voice was hoarse.

"There you go, being funny again." Azula propped her chin in her hand. "All right, I can play the part." She whisked the locks of hair from her forehead, stiffened her face to a solemn mask and sat up. "Name your reward," her voice rang out.

"Princess Azula." Shun put his hands to the floor and went to both knees. "I want... I... wish..." His eyes shut tightly.

Azula let out a bored sigh. "You," she said, "are the most predictable man I have ever seen. There's Zuko, but he's a boy." There was something like pity in the way she looked down at him.

"You want to serve Zuko, and only him. No more lies, no more double crosses." Shun was still as stone. "You need my good graces for a chance at that, so you committed your greatest betrayal. So tragic." She wiped away a tear that wasn't there.

In a blink she was crouched on the floor beside him. "You knew." His hair shifted on her breath. "You knew what I was going to do with the information." Shun's breaths came faster. "Yes, it would kill some of your fellows, but so what? Maybe you even wanted that." A strangled sound came from him. "Zuko relied on this Hojin, the peasant stray from Tamalan? He was closer to Zuko, even though you were there first? That took care of him! You had the skill to save Zuko's life, that would only raise you higher in his-"

"Khoujin."

"What?"

"His name was Khoujin." Azula had only started to leap back when Shun's forearm slammed across her throat, knocking her off her feet. "You fork-tongued little-" His hand closed around her neck before she could rise, pinning her to the floor.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Zhuling stood blocking the guards. "Do you have the Lady Chamberlain's authority to be here?"

"Yes." The female guard held up a slip of paper. "We have Lady Zhao Ni's orders."

Lan gasped next to Sa Ye. "The new Lady Chamberlain..."

"Get up, girl." The young male guard turned to Sa Ye. "Don't make this hard on yourself."

It was like a bad dream. She had to do something, maybe run away, but she couldn't move. Where would she go?

Lan sprang from the bed. "Sa Ye came here with Prince Zuko's party! You can't just take her away like a criminal."

The guard hesitated, and Lan placed a hand on his arm. "Hong, please! Tell me what's going on."

Hong leaned toward Lan. "Look, it's not just her. They're questioning a lot of people who were in the Prince's retinue that night."

"Why, so the imperial investigators can look like they're doing something?" Lan's voice rose.

"Lan, don't make trouble." Hong raised his hands. "I'm sure she doesn't know anything, so the sooner we're gone the sooner she's back."

Sa Ye jumped at a clatter next to her, and turned to the see the woman guard sweeping everything off her dresser. "What are you doing with my things?" She stood with the force of terror.

"Looking for contraband." The female guard turned to Sa Ye's chest of drawers and opened them bottom to top. She took out Sa Ye's clothes, shook them out, and tossed them aside.

"What- what kind of contraband." A bead necklace crunched under the guard's boot. Sa Ye remembered Khoujin slipping that necklace on her, apologizing because he'd wanted to get something nicer and couldn't.

"Can't tell you." The guard pulled the empty drawers out and dropped them on top of her things. "What's in here?" She picked up the urn on top of the hollowed-out chest.

"Her husband," said Zhuling. "You've never seen an urn before?"

The guard shook Khoujin's urn in her hands, tried the sealed lid, and held it out at Sa Ye. "Open it."

"Please-" Sa Ye didn't know when she'd started crying. "Don't..." she reached for it, to hug it to her chest and and run from this awful place until she was alone with her memories of safety and strength.

"Never mind, then." The guard lifted the urn over her head. Sa Ye gaped at her, unable to imagine what she might want to do.

"Sergeant Cheng, that's too much." Hong put out a hand. "I think I heard about this girl, her husband was in the Prince's-"

Cheng threw the urn to the floor, where it exploded with shards of porcelain and Khoujin's ashes.

"Sa Ye!" She didn't remember falling, but she was sitting on the floor with Lan's arms around her. Cheng sorted through the ashes and porcelain pieces with a foot.

"Nothing here."

Sa Ye was crawling, a beast on all fours, reaching out and closing her hand around Khoujin's ashes. In that touch was the memory of another death, this hand in its pudgy childhood taking Mother's ashes to scatter them over the sea. Would the sea breezes take Khoujin from her, too?

"Let's go, then." A hand was on her shoulder, raising her up and forcing her to be human again. Sa Ye fumbled to find her tongue.

"One minute. Give me a minute to change." Sa Ye found Lan's hand and grabbed it hard, looking into her scared eyes. She had to make up her mind fast, and trusting the girl felt right. Give her burden over and tell Lan what she must do. It wasn't fair to Lan but they would search Sa Ye when they arrested her, and she couldn't let them find-

"Hong, turn your back," said Cheng. Hong gulped and turned to a wall. When Cheng went to the door Sa Ye saw frightened eyes peering from the hallway outside, and the armored forms of several more guards. "Make it quick." Cheng closed the door and stood with her back to it, her hand resting on her sword.

"All right." Sa Ye stood, raising Lan with her. All her plans were dust, like the ashes she clenched. She was emptied of everything that held her, so light she might fly away on a stray wind.

"Sorry," she whispered to Lan and pushed her into Cheng, heard them both crash to the floor as she turned from the door and ran.

"Stop her, Hong! You, get off me."

"I'm trying, the floor's so slippery here!"

Zhuling's open-mouthed face grew closer and closer against the paper-filtered sunlight. Sa Ye was about to sidestep when Zhuling moved instead. Sa Ye ran on as Zhuling stepped around her and into Hong's path, taking him down.

Then her foot was on the windowsill and she knew she couldn't hesitate. She crashed through the paper and wood shutters and kicked off from the third floor window, the sun and sky thrown open to her and her life lighter than dust.

* * *

After a split second of shock Azula kicked blue fire at Shun's head, which he ducked. Her flaming hand gripped his wrist at her neck, heating his wristguard red and raising a smell of burning flesh, but he seemed not to notice. Her other hand swept blazing blue at his face; he caught it midair, her wrist tiny in his calloused grip.

"Why don't I end both you an' me here, girlie?" He sounded inhuman, the foreign accent breaking the shapes of the words. "What's stopping me?" Azula kicked at him without force, the flames fading as she fought to suck in air.

The door flew open and sharp whistles split the air. Shun jumped out of the way, releasing Azula. Three darts flew through the air where his head had been and lodged themselves in the wall.

Mai rushed to place herself between Shun and Azula. Shun tumbled across the floor, flying metal and fire following his path, until he was in a corner. He started toward the girls and then caught himself, his eyes on Mai.

Shun sidestepped the lash of blue fire Azula threw down at him. He raised an arm to take one of Mai's knives in his wristguard, and gave a grunt when another lodged in his arm. He moved his head so a third grazed his cheek rather than take an eye. Deliberately he knelt and placed his hands on the floor, and did not move when they approached ready to attack.

"Wait." Mai frowned. "You're Zuko's-"

"Insolent... cur." Azula's voice rasped low in her throat. "You..." She scowled in pain, a hand at her neck, and directed a stream of fire at Shun's arm. The flames turned from blue to red as his sleeve burned and the smoke rose. Shun did not even flinch.

"Azula." Mai's pale face turned paler at the sight of the flames licking over Shun's arm, reddening the skin patched with older burn scars.

"Don't... worry." Azula cleared her throat with a choked cough, her voice less hoarse when she spoke again. "Told me... he can take _much_ more." She closed her hand in a fist, extinguishing the flames. "Without a sound. Right, Shun?"

"Should I call the guards, Princess?" Mai turned to the door, the dart launcher poking out of her sleeve still aimed at Shun.

"No." Azula crossed her arms and looked down at Shun in contemplation. "Wait for me... outside."

Azula cut off Mai's protest before she got a word out. "You did well." She met Mai's eyes. "I have this under control."

Mai nodded and went to the door, glancing back once at Shun. The door closed behind her, and her footsteps retreated.

"Look at me."

After a long moment he did, blood dripping down his face to soak his shirt, his intact sleeve spotting red around Mai's knife while the burns on his other arm started to blister.

"You know what you did." Azula pulled aside her raised collar and touched the red mark around her neck, wincing. "Attacked a Princess of the Fire Nation."

Shun nodded, head drooping.

"I can make you beg to die. For years."

"You can try," he mumbled behind his hair.

"Insolent as ever." Azula gave several explosive coughs, but she was smiling when the fit passed. "Why give up? Because she," she jerked her head toward the door, "means something to Zuko?"

"Both of you." The blood dropped from his bowed head to the floor. "You both mean too much to him."

She stared at him, her wide-eyed gaze childlike, before her face eased into a smirk. "Well," she said. "How... touching." With a rustle she removed a piece of paper from her sleeve. "Look."

He raised his head as though against a weight, half his face glistening red.

"From Haishan. You recognize it?" Blue flames flickered around the paper as he watched, catching red, and incinerated the letter with a soft _whoosh_.

"I will not call for you again, nor tell anyone about you." Azula let the ashes fall as the smoke rose from her hand. "Go serve my brother, or go wherever you want."

At the door Azula gave him a last look over her shoulder. "You're free." At the words he started trembling, his gaze falling from the door as it closed.

He listened to the girls' footfalls until they were gone, then leaned against the wall curling into himself. Gasping sounds burst from him, half laughing and half sobbing, but no tears came to wash the drying blood from his face.


	29. Chapter 12: Stories 2 of 2

Note: Okay, I lied in the notes for the previous chapter. You may have to read _The Alternative_ for a lot of this to make sense, after all.

* * *

Her hands hit the ground first, the shock jarring up her arms to her shoulders. That was okay—her arms and hands were the least important parts of her now.

She bent double as the rest of her followed, curling around her middle as she rolled across the dirt. She lay there gasping for two breaths, and stirred.

She raised herself, but swallowed a scream when her elbow touched the ground. The pain flashed in her eyes, blinding her, her stomach heaving.

_Khoujin._ She pulled her knees under her, and stood up against a world that pitched like a ship at storm. _Don't let me lose the baby. It's all I have of you._

"General Iroh!" The scream came bouncing back from the walls as she threw one foot forward and the other, each running step about to bring her to the ground.

"General Iroh!" She sounded like some crazed animal. Good, let someone come investigate. Spirits, Khoujin, anyone, let Prince Zuko or the General come see.

She ran south just left of the sun. It was the best chance she had. More guards at the south wing, yes, but a better chance of running into the Prince or someone who might help. She would not outrun the guards for long anyway. Unless she met someone who could intervene, it was over.

Shouts and running feet behind her, why wouldn't these useless legs move, faster, faster? She knew before it happened when her foot landed wrong and she went sprawling on her crooked ankle, legs tangling like a newborn calf's.

She had to _run,_ but she was thrown back to a year ago when Father struck her in a drunken rage and she fell across the dirt, dropping her basket of greens. The memory of Khoujin's watching face rushed in, the scent of crushed sesame-ginger leaves sharp in her nose, his look of outrage and—helplessness.

_Mew?_ To her right a grey wingcat, a baby kitten really with its wings not grown out, stood looking back at her in the shade between two buildings. The kitten's gaze followed her up as she rose. She was just stumbling past when it _mrroooow_ed, the call ringing from someplace deeper than its little body. The cry drew her, hooking somewhere below her bellybutton and pulling her in.

She took one step toward it and then another, and in a twinkle the kitten turned and ran deeper into the gap between the buildings.

"She's there!" Pounding footfalls and the rattle of armor in her ears, she chased after the kitten and did not know why. Ahead the kitten turned a corner and she followed, running along a wall and into a branching corridor between more stone walls.

"Where'd she go?" "We'll split up."

The kitten bounded around another corner. It was too quick for its size, but seemed to wait for her before leaving her sight. She ran after it, her breaths burning in and out.

She knew, back when she met Khoujin's eyes over her basket of soiled greens. Khoujin would let her go, let her be some rich man's concubine, something Sa Ye had always known she couldn't go through with. Her sister Mi Ye was happy where she was, as Father reminded her every other day, but Sa Ye knew something in her would die if she was forced to live that life.

But Khoujin would not help her. Khoujin, with two brothers whose bones lay somewhere in the Earth Kingdom and a mother who never recovered from their deaths, would not expose himself for her sake and kill his father with grief. He merely loved her. What was love compared to family?

Compared to the bonds of blood?

She caught herself against the stones of the wall, gulping in air. The kitten before her blurred to a grey blob, stupid to waste her breath crying when she needed to run. Stupid to waste her one chance wandering here among the vegetable gardens, chasing a ghost her head made up when she hit it falling. Pain stabbed at the right side of her face in time with her heartbeat. She was not surprised to reach up and touch blood. Stupid little peasant.

But she was crafty that once, when she made this baby. She knew what she was doing when she drew Khoujin into the frozen shadows of the willows and kissed him, and when she ran away all flustered. She knew when to show him the tears shine in her eyes. She cried when she told Khoujin about her moon-blood not coming. She lied when she said she'd tried to get rid of it. All so he and his people would have to fight for what was theirs, crying and lying him into ashes.

The kitten went around a corner, mocking her. Fine. If her addled brain cooked that thing up, she would go strangle it herself. She'd eaten cat when she was hungry, she knew how to catch them and skin them. She shuffled after it because she had nothing else in the world, her mission failed and she didn't deserve this baby. Maybe if she could have done it her story would have meant something, something more than her killing Khoujin so she could be free of her father and his plans.

But she couldn't do even that, and if the spirits took mercy on her child they would take it away from her to its father. She envied it, because her way back to Khoujin's arms would not be so quick or easy.

Maybe he wouldn't have her. Her feet stuttered to a stop before a wooden gate. The wingkitten was nowhere in sight. Lost, she breathed the fresh tang of some herb. Maybe Khoujin would laugh in her face and cast her out, as he should have done when she told him she was pregnant. Because Sanwai would not have had the courage to go before Prince Zuko if he wasn't desperate to help his son keep his child, and the attack wouldn't have happened, and Zuko would still be a happy boy and Khoujin would be alive.

And the worst part?

"You! Stop!"

Armor clattered and feet pounded dirt toward her, and she pushed through the gate because she had nowhere to go. She would run a little while before they caught her. The herbal scent washed over her as she stepped through, cleaning out her nose and throat.

The worst part, she thought as she looked over the garden of growing green, the worst thing about her was, she would do it over again. She had twenty-three days with Khoujin without fear or shame: days when they smiled at each other without looking over their shoulders, nights when they shared a tent and didn't care what anyone thought.

She wandered between the rows of mint, careful where she put her feet. She had tended fields her whole life, and it would take more than this for her to trample growing things. Besides, she wasn't in no hurry anymore. No matter what happened now she would thank Prince Zuko with every breath she had, for giving her those twenty-three days when she lived the way she chose, with who she chose. It was worth her life. It was worth Khoujin's. It was vile of her, but that was how it was.

"Child!" She turned to see someone hurry to her across the garden. "Are you all right?" It was a paunchy old man with dirt on his working clothes, a straw hat shading his face. She stepped back from him, trying to get away—she didn't want the kindly gardener seen with her, even get caught up in suspicion himself.

Then they came with a storm of leather and metal, trampling the garden under their booted feet. When they grabbed her, twisting her arms behind so she had to bend forward, she wasn't looking at them but at the crushed mints. She wouldn't struggle. They'd just destroy more of the garden if she did, and she already did more than enough harm to the world.

And because she was looking down she saw it, the grey streak darting through the mint plants without bending one leaf. The wingkitten ran to the corner of the garden and a roofed gravestone there, the whole shrine maybe as high as Sa Ye's chest. Pausing before it the kitten turned to look at her, but she couldn't follow_,_ couldn't it see...

The kitten walked into the altar and disappeared.

She had just enough time to wish she could tell Lan about this crazy vision before her head snapped to the side, her head fit to split open from the blow. Her arm was pulled up behind at an angle that threatened to snap it, forcing her to her knees. A hand dragged her head up by the hair, and someone shouted questions or threats she couldn't understand.

"_What is the meaning of this!_"

The roar shattered the air and took her breath with it. She quaked at the old man, who strode over as he cast his straw hat aside. Was it really the kindly gardener who just sounded like a dragon come to life? Stay away, she wanted to say. You'd know I'm not worth it if you knew me.

Some of the guards spoke before she could. "General Iroh!"

The words that came after were lost in the rushing in her ears. Black spots swam before her eyes but she held on, biting down on her lip to keep her senses. She watched the guards say something to the gardener, to General Iroh, the Dragon of the West. Then someone tried to pull her up by the arm, the pain shooting through her until she cried out.

It stopped, the pain an echo, and she breathed again. She could hear the General, that commanding tone with the weight of a mountain behind it. The guards were trying to reason with him as they might with an exploding volcano.

"-so you can abuse her where I cannot see?" She made out the words as the din in her ears died down. "Release that child."

"But General-"

"I said release her!" The guards took a step back, the hands on her arms growing slack so that she lurched and threw herself back before she fell on her face. She understood how they felt; she felt like crouching in a hole in the ground, and it wasn't her the Dragon of the West was raging at.

"General." Sa Ye flinched, recognizing Cheng's voice, all metal edges and angles. "When we attempted to question this woman in connection with the attempt against Prince Zuko, she leapt from a third-story window to escape." There was heat in Cheng's voice as she continued. "Sir, can you tell me anyone would do that unless they had something to hide?"

"Leave." The General's flame-pale eyes blazed in the sun. "If she is as you suspect, I will deliver her to the authorities myself. But to ones who remember what it means to serve their nation with honor. Never," his eyes moved over the guards, staying on Cheng, "to the likes of any of you."

Some of the guards searched the ground with their eyes, unable to look at General Iroh. Cheng stood as though she would never move again.

"Now go." The General looked away, a tired man in dirty clothes. Sa Ye wondered why he looked so ashamed.

The guards raced each other out of the garden except Cheng, who stood for several heartbeats looking at General Iroh before she spun on her heel and walked away with measured steps. Whatever else she thought of Cheng, Sa Ye had to admire her boldness.

General Iroh came to kneel beside her, his eyes full of concern as if she was someone important. "Stay here just a little while. Your poor face... I will call a doctor."

"No please, wait." She had to do this now, while she still had her senses. "Please, I have something-" she lifted her skirt as she spoke, clawing through its folds with clumsy fingers. General Iroh looked away so fast his neck popped, and he hurried a few paces off with his back to her.

"I am not sure what you are trying to do, but-"

"I have it." She used her teeth to tear out the stitches that held the red-streaked pouch to her underskirt. Then she brushed her spotted skirts back down, the heat rising to her face. "Forgive me, you can look now."

She knelt as he turned to face her. "General Iroh." Her ears rang and she kept pitching in every direction, but she would do this proper. She bowed her head and lifted the pouch above it, warm and damp to the touch. "Elder Lao Tai of my village charged me with delivering this package to you. I ask you to please accept it." She watched Iroh's feet approach, then stop in front of her.

The weight on her hands lifted as Iroh took the pouch. Dizzy with relief, she heard the rustle of cloth and a catch of breath. Iroh's feet disappeared and his face filled her sight, eyes wide in alarm.

"You are bleeding!" His hands caught hold of her shoulders. "Lie down at once." He helped her down to her bed of earth and mint, muttering all the while. "How did you think to jump, girl, don't you know you have a little fire-wielder growing inside you..." He tossed the pouch next to her before he ran out of the garden shouting for help.

_A fire-wielder_. Sa Ye placed a hand on her belly. _I have a little fire-wielder inside me._ She knew the old-fashioned words as the General did, fire-weaver for a bending girl-child, fire-wielder for a boy.

She clutched the bloodstained pouch to herself, remembering now that she had sewn it out of white silk. The red parts meant she was losing her one link to Khoujin, her fire-wielder, just when she might live and raise her child in the sun.

That was spirits for you, she thought. They had the strangest sense of humor. Was that a mew in her ear and a rustle of wings, or was it a dream? She tried to look, but her body wouldn't move.

_Stay,_ she told the flicker of life inside her. _Stay with me if you can. Give me a chance to see you, hold you._ With that thought she fell into mint-scented darkness.

* * *

Shun, wearing a shirt that left loose folds around his shoulders, stepped through the door and into the room. Zuko sat on his bed staring into space, and looked up when Shun placed his foot to sound a footfall.

"I thought you were off duty until morning." Zuko's eyes did not focus on Shun and looked instead in his general direction, missing the white plaster on his cheek and the care with which he moved.

"I heard the guards talking in the barracks." Shun hovered between approaching and turning away.

Zuko's shoulders slumped, as though some invisible string holding him up were cut.

"They've arrested Master Lu."

Shun staggered two steps to Zuko and fell to his knees. "My Prince."

"They said he lied to the Firelord, that he was... in on the..." Zuko rubbed his face as though to wipe away his thoughts. "This is the worst it gets, isn't it?" He dropped his head, too tired to hold it up. "I won't lose anyone else... right?"

Shun said nothing, though a muscle twitched in his jaw. The silence stretched on in the firelit room, a drop of light on a sea of darkness claimed by the old blind things that never stayed their course and could not imagine mercy.

* * *

Note: To see what Shun did about his clothing and his wounds, check out the short story _Patching Up_ on my LiveJournal. You don't need to see it to follow this story, and be warned that it's on the naughty side though I've folded up the explicit part for easy skipping.

* * *

_Next: Spiritual and decidedly less spiritual questions abound._


	30. Chapter 13: Questions 1 of 2

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 13: Questions**

* * *

Note: A big, big thank-you goes out to my beta-reader Amy Raine for telling me to do some much-needed pruning already. I think the writing is much better for it. If you haven't read Amy's stories yet, boy are you missing out.

* * *

Previously:

"And in his days," Master Lu recited, "swords were made into plowshares. The people lived out the span of their days..." (Tamalan)

"I don't want to know what it says." Zuko released another burst of flame to burn away the remainder of Master Lu's letter. "I will not abandon you." (The Reservoir)

But he was right there, so close he could see the crow's feet around her eyes, and he knelt to reach for her. "Mom!" (Flames in the Night)

If Zuko was the prince who could heal the rift in the world, they would know. There would be some sign of so momentous a destiny. (The Dragon Prince)

* * *

Sunlight warmed him as it expanded to fill the room, bringing the red and gold of the furnishings to a deep blaze. The tea set gleamed on the heavy wooden table, and the sharp fragrance of ginseng filled the air. Zuko closed his eyes and let the sun's warmth touch the spark deep inside him, the fire he vowed never to lose again.

He heard footsteps on the carpet and opened his eyes. Uncle's balding pate gleamed in the brightness, his sideburns a gold-streaked halo.

Zuko got to his feet. "Uncle."

"Prince Zuko." The crow's feet deepened around his uncle's eyes as he smiled. "I am so happy you have come to see me."

"I apologize for the inconvenience. I'll try to be brief."

Uncle's eyebrows drooped. "You know you are welcome to come see me anytime."

Zuko couldn't meet his eyes. He didn't want to embarrass himself like he had on his first night back at the palace, when he'd clung to Uncle like a child out of sheer relief. Seeing that familiar face had been like having his life back, as though everything would be all right now that he was home.

_You'd think that, Dumdum._ Azula laughed in his mind.

Uncle sat down and offered Zuko a seat. A servant came forward to fill their cups, then left the room at a gesture from Iroh.

Iroh looked at Zuko across the curls of ginseng-scented steam, his face grave. "I heard about Master Lu, Prince Zuko. I am most sorry." He lowered his eyes. "More than you know."

Sorry. The old man was sorry. What did he know about having someone he cared about taken away, not knowing what was going to happen to them or if he would ever see them again? It had been a mistake to come here. The blood rose to Zuko's head, carrying him to his feet.

"If all you can do is feel sorry about it-" Zuko was about to turn away when he felt a touch on his arm. He looked down at his uncle's hand on his forearm, the gentle contact somehow impossible to break away from.

His eyes inched up to meet Iroh's, the depth of the old loss. Zuko's anger cooled to the metallic taste of self-hatred. Agni's flame, what was wrong with him?

"Zuko." Zuko's throat grew tight as Uncle squeezed his forearm. "Please, talk to me."

He half sat down, half collapsed into his chair. He didn't know why Uncle Iroh insisted on such patience for someone who couldn't control his temper for two minutes. If he acted that way around his father, Father would-

_Ah, Prince Zuko, you are back safely. From this point on, I trust you can keep out of trouble?_

Zuko hunched his shoulders around the coldness in his chest. He felt the slick of sweat on his neck as though he still bowed before the dais.

"-rince Zuko?" Zuko looked up at his uncle's concerned face. "I was asking if you have any ideas."

"I- I don't know. Couldn't you talk to Father? Master Lu would never hurt me. How could anyone think that?" He clenched his teeth. "It's not fair."

"No, it is not." Uncle looked shrewdly at him. "But if you believe speaking to your father will be enough to clear Master Lu, why do you hesitate to do so?"

Zuko looked away, ice filling his chest at the thought.

"It is the same with me." Furrows lay deep across Uncle's face. "The evidence against your teacher is clear. He has already confessed to lying about your location in the letter to the Fire Palace, in order to save your life against a plot here."

"So there's no way to save him?" Zuko hated himself for the way his voice trembled.

"I did not say that." Uncle sipped from his cup, his eyes thoughtful. "If it is proven that there was in fact a plot in the Fire Palace against you, and if we could find the conspirators, then we have much a stronger case for Master Lu." Zuko felt some of the tension leave him at the word "we."

"Will it be enough to clear him?" His heart pounded, the hope as painful as the fear.

"I hope so, nephew." Iroh put his cup down. "In such case, our combined word should do him some good."

"I-" Zuko felt like going around the table and give his uncle a hug. "I think you're right. But even the imperial investigators don't have a lead yet..."

"I have found that often a way is found through will more than ability." Uncle's face closed off, revealing nothing of what went on behind it. "And I have friends among the investigators who will help us."

The images that populated his sleeping and waking dreams passed before Zuko's eyes, the spray of blood in his face, Khoujin falling to his knees. "So we'll be finding the people responsible for that night." Zuko felt his inner fire dance, flickers of shadowed brilliance in the sun. "I'm ready, Uncle."

"We will first decide on a plan of attack." Uncle poured himself more tea. Zuko nodded, and took a gulp of his own drink without feeling the heat or the taste of it.

"But first, Prince Zuko," Iroh refilled Zuko's cup, "tell me about what you saw at Tamalan."

"Tamalan." Zuko blinked, unbalanced. "What does that have to do with the attack?"

"It has everything to do with the attack." Uncle held Zuko's gaze. "Specifically, I must know what you saw at the spirit place by the reservoir."

* * *

"You almost have it." Shiri placed a hand between Yenzi's shoulder blades. "Breathe."

Yenzi drew in a breath to the pit of her stomach and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, one hand at navel height facing up and the other before her chest facing down. A streak of fire hung suspended in the air between the furnace and her hands, flowing bit by bit as she moved. The fire folded into itself as it crawled between Yenzi's hands, growing smaller and more focused until it congealed to a brighter shade of orange.

"I have it." Yenzi's voice rose in excitement as the fire grew yellow at the tip, and shaded into white. "Mom, look!"

"Breathe," Shiri said again, pressing her hand into Yenzi's back. "Lower your stance."

Yenzi calmed her breathing with an effort. She brought her hands around as she further bent her knees, guiding the body of flame toward a crumpled sheet of scrap metal on a stand. All the while the fire pressed itself to become smaller and flatter, looking something like a picture of a blade painted in streaks of red, orange, and yellow-white. It came to a stop over the sheet metal, moving in time with Yenzi's breathing.

"Now." Shiri came to stand beside Yenzi. "Cut down on the steel."A trickle of perspiration rolled down Yenzi's cheek and dangled from her chin as she lowered her hand to guide the flame-blade down. The sweatdrop broke loose, gleaming in the colors of fire as it flew to the floor; the blade cut into the edge of the steel, an excited squeak from Yenzi making it shudder as her breath was disrupted.

The door of the workroom opened with a screech, carrying sunlight deep into the firelit gloom. Yenzi flinched and turned; the white fire-blade flew from her hand to the door and the head framed in it.

The man held a palm out, but he hardly had his bending move in place before Shiri threw out a hand, scattering the flame to red sparks that struck the wall on either side of the door and blinked out of existence.

"The slow fire, I see. Though too quick for my tastes just now." The man who stepped into the garage was in early middle age, and wore a belted knee-length vest over his robe with an armband bearing the emblem of an eye within the Fire Nation flame. "White fire, impressive. But I have seen the Princess wield blue."

"Inspector Shang." Shiri bowed, stepping to place herself between the man and Yenzi. "What brings you here today?"

"I was hoping to talk again, Madam An." Inspector Shang of the Imperial Investigators nodded to her and looked beyond her to Yenzi. "But I think the young lady has had a shock, please attend to your daughter."

"Yenzi?" When Shiri turned around to look, Yenzi's face was white enough to glow in the dimness outside the sun. "Yenzi, it's all right. Nothing happened." Shiri put an arm around her daughter and massaged her hand.

"I almost killed someone, Mom!" Yenzi choked out. "If he had- if you hadn't-"

"Look at me." Shiri fixed her eyes on Yenzi until Yenzi looked back, her gaze unsteady. "I was prepared for that. I would never have taught you if I couldn't deal with a young forge-bender losing control." Shiri took her arm from Yenzi to hold her daughter's hand in both of hers. "You wouldn't have killed anyone, because I wouldn't let you. Do you understand me?" Yenzi nodded and looked at the floor.

"Besides, the Inspector is a capable firebender himself." Shiri turned to Shang, an edge in her smile. "Though I wouldn't rely on that alone when a young firebender is learning to cut steel. Didn't you see the sign directing any inquiries to the shop?"

"Oh, I would not dream of imposing on you or your husband to close the store for me."

"That is kind of you." Bitterness crept into Shiri's voice. "But we are not exactly spoiled for business since it became known that you could run into Imperial Investigators here."

Yenzi spoke before the Inspector could answer. "He wanted to see what we're hiding, Mom."

"Yenzi."

"It's true, isn't it?" She stepped past her mother to face Shang. "What were we doing in here, maybe building things we wanted to hide on short notice? That's why we didn't lock the door, because then you'd do more than suspect-"

"Yenzi, hush." Shiri placed an arm on Yenzi's arm. "Go help your father in the store."

The Inspector held up a hand. "Actually, Madam, it was your daughter I was hoping to talk to."

"Yenzi?" Shiri frowned. "You've already asked her questions."

"You are aware it is standard practice to request voluntary accompaniment for questioning, which request you and your husband were gracious enough to-"

"Inspector." Shiri's face drained of emotion. "Are you talking about arresting my seventeen-year-old daughter?"

"Perhaps you should recall the definition of 'voluntary' accompaniment." Shang put his hands behind his back. "We have never arrested any member of your family, and Agni willing we never will."

"You mean, as long as _we _are willing." Shiri did not seem to realize she was bending her knees, one foot sliding ahead of the other in the beginning of a firebending stance.

Inspector Shang strode into the room past Shiri, to the sheet of scrap metal Yenzi had been working on. "I must say, I was impressed to hear about your prowess in battle, Madam."

"What prowess?" Shiri broke stance and stood straight, lowering her hands as she let out a breath. "I'm a smith. I make things out of metal, and I know how to destroy them."

"Even so." The Inspector placed his finger on the edge of the steel sheet where it was nicked from Yenzi's fire. "Cutting swords in half is no mean feat in the heat of battle." He looked at Yenzi. "Have you learned well from your mother?"

"I'm still learning." Yenzi met his eyes. "Let's not waste more time, sir. I'm coming with you."

"You are doing no such thing." Shiri spun to face her. "It's called voluntary-"

"I'm going, voluntarily." Yenzi cut her off, her eyes never leaving Shang's. "I know what he's going to ask if I don't."

"It's true we never had the chance to speak to your son, even in the safety of your home." Shang stood straight with his hands in the sleeves of his robe. "Even though we understand he had a unique view of the perpetrators just before the attack took place."

"And you're never going to talk to him, because it's unnecessary." Shiri's nostrils flared. "We told you everything he remembers, about that man called Kang and everything else. You won't make him relive that night any more than he already has." She closed her arms over her middle as though she clutched a child to herself.

"While I deeply respect your wish to safeguard your son, legally that decision is not yours to-"

"I said let's go!" Yenzi took a step toward him. "Don't you have a real job, other than standing around talking at us?"

"Yenzi, don't do this." Shiri grabbed hold of Yenzi's arm, but Yenzi shook her off.

"You can't stop me from going. I'm legally an adult, remember?"

"True," the Inspector cut in before Shiri could speak. "And I thank you for your cooperation, Miss Tien. Please." He walked toward the door of the shed.

"Mom, I'm not changing my-" Yenzi struggled when her mother spun her around, but Shiri pulled her into a fierce embrace before holding her at arm's length.

"I am so proud of my daughter." Shiri smoothed Yenzi's hair back. "I love you, dear."

"It's not like anything's going to happen." Yenzi made a face, though a delighted grin threatened to break through. "You and Dad were both fine. Seriously, Mom."

"Just don't give them too much lip, all right?" Shiri held on to a hand as Yenzi pulled away. "I know you can't give them none, just..." The tips of Yenzi's fingers slipped from her hand. "Be careful."

"Oh, there's your City Guard lackey," came Yenzi's voice as she stepped outside. "Hullo there young Jiang, you know you're breaking your old father's heart, right?" The carpenter's son, who himself had a son Yenzi's age, grumbled back at her.

"Will we be back in time for sundown curfew?" Yenzi continued as their footfalls receded. "I'd hate to break any of your fancy new laws. Speaking of which, we're only two short of breaking the no-congregation rule! Add another guard, another prisoner, and we pretty much all have to go to jail."

"So much for not giving lip." Shiri's smile came out crumpled. Then she snatched the scrap metal off its stand and dashed it against the wall with a scream of frustration. That was how Tien found her, standing in the workroom and staring at nothing. He pulled her into his arms as she stammered out an explanation, an apology for letting their daughter go. They stood in each others' embrace for a long moment before they walked back to the house hand in hand.

* * *

_If these base and violent beasts spoil for a fight... _The voice from his vision returned to Zuko where he sat in the sunlit room, shadows dancing at the edges of light at the memory.

"And it seemed," Zuko told his empty teacup, "that Firelord Sozin ordered the dragons hunted and killed because they opposed the war. And the- the fighting with the people of Air."

It was silly, the way he kept dwelling on the fate of the Air Nomads. They may have been a bloodthirsty people, but how could the Avatar leave his own people to die out?

"Was that everything, Prince Zuko?"

Zuko looked up at the eyes that saw through him, would not rest until they dragged everything out of him and left him empty of secrets.

_I will return... to these oceans and mountains that I love... _He heard the voices of the dragons in his vision or delusion, the memory as fresh as though he heard them for the first time.

"No." Zuko gripped the edge of the table. "There was more.

"In what you keep calling my spirit vision," he met the false Dragon's eyes, not wanting to spare him any of the pain he deserved. "It seemed to me the dragons were not animals but the spirits of the dead, throughout our history. The old tribes," the woman in her tunic of hide, "the Fire Kingdom," the old man who faced his death with unbending dignity, "the early Fire Nation." The boy who knew the world through stories and his sickroom window._To protect this land and defend it... forever,_ the dead dragons whispered in his mind.

"And my Grandfather Sozin ordered them killed." Uncle's voice sank through the air.

"_You_ killed the last of them. Dragon of the West." Zuko lashed out a hand, toppling his cup and sending its residue of tea spilling over the table. Iroh looked down at it, his mouth drooping. The old kook was mourning the tea, in all likelihood.

"How could you?" Zuko staggered away from the table; he couldn't stand looking at the old man. "They were the best of us, and they-" he caught himself against the window and stared out at the sun-soaked garden without seeing it. "They were destroyed, permanently. I could feel it."

"Prince Zuko." Zuko heard the suffering in Uncle's voice, and welcomed it. "I have no excuse for my actions."

"Good!" His stupid voice cracked. "At least you have a sense of shame."

The air was heavy with silence. Zuko leaned down until his face was against his hands on the windowsill, the smoothness of the skin strange when he had felt the dragon's fire burn his face away.

"Were the dragons really against the war?" Why was he asking this old monster? There were so many things he should be asking instead, like how many catapults did Iroh have along to prove his supposed firebending mastery in conquering the last dragon?

"Zuko, nephew." Zuko flinched away from the warm hand like it was spider-snakes on his back, and straightened to face his uncle. "Zuko, you cannot openly oppose the war. It is too dangerous."

"Who are you to decide what I can or can't do?" Zuko's hand closed into a fist. "Do I look like lazy fat man like you, wasting my days on Pai Sho and tea?"

"I would never mistake you for a lazy man, Prince Zuko, nor a fat one." There was actually the beginning of a smile on Uncle's face.

"You just don't want anything interfering with your comfortable life." Zuko took three paces to his uncle, filling his vision with the wrinkled face and the eyes with the light fading out of them. "Your son would be ashamed of you."

He knew from the look on his uncle's face that Iroh would not follow him or call for him, perhaps ever. He also knew that if he stayed a moment longer he would do something undignified, start weeping again like a pathetic little boy. Instead he turned and walked out, stumbling because he could not stop seeing Uncle's face no matter where he looked.

Zuko wondered how Azula could bear to say the things she did. Didn't she carry around the memory of the people she hurt? But she wouldn't, because she was too strong for that. Too perfect. He wondered what kind of perversity made him glad he would never have that kind of strength, or perfection.


	31. Chapter 13: Questions 2 of 2

"And that's how the investigation will go." Zuko squinted in the torchlight at the paper spread in his lap. "We have a few clues. Kang of Azhoran was with the assassins, and he's a distinctive man. Especially with his new hair."

"I was surprised to hear of him." Master Lu sat on the other side of the bars in his cell, straight-backed with his hands in his sleeves despite the uncombed hair sprawling over the shoulders of his thin prison shirt. "Surprised... and concerned."

"He's sworn a warrior's oath." Zuko remembered the chill that went through him when he heard the reports of Kang at the attack, the way he had shaved his hair off except the portion he tied up in his warrior's ponytail.

"To fulfill a task, or die in the attempt. I think we know what that task is."

Zuko nodded, his mouth dry. Kang had sworn to kill him or die trying—and he had been cooperating with someone in the Fire Palace.

"Maybe it's understandable." He kept his voice light; he wouldn't break down again into that snarling creature he had been to his uncle three days ago. "Kang lost everything when his uncle banished and disinherited him after Tamalan. Maybe he blames me for it."

"You are entirely too understanding, Prince Zuko." Master Lu sighed.

Understanding? It was a terrible thing to be glad one's teacher was in jail, but at least Master Lu had not been there to see the way he treated Uncle Iroh. Zuko couldn't understand how his uncle kept forgiving him, helping him, even while standing back just a little as though afraid of being burned.

"Not to be opportunistic, but this can only help Tamalan." Master Lu scratched his neck, maybe a tickflea bite? Zuko shuddered at the thought. "Lord Zhen may have banished Kang, but attempted assassination of the crown prince is another matter entirely. I think Zhen will see it in his best interest to cooperate in giving the village certain guarantees."

"About that." Zuko scratched an itch on his own neck. Agni, he wasn't getting tickfleas in here, was he? "Could I ask you to draft the letter to Lord Zhen? I know you're in jail and all, but..."

"Prince Zuko, my days were hardly bustling with activity these past days." Master Lu's smile was lopsided. "I think they will allow me writing utensils and even books if you told them it is necessary in my work for you."

"Then I'll put in a word right away." Zuko placed a hand on the bars of the cell. Was it only a moon ago that he had busted Sanwai out of Lord Zhen's prison? What did Sanwai think of him now, the prince who got his youngest killed?

Zuko gripped the bar so hard his hand hurt, using the pain to distract himself from thoughts of Khoujin. "I'll tell them you need lots of books for your work, whatever books you request. And better light, a cleaner cell."

Master Lu bowed. "Thank you, Prince Zuko. That is most gracious."

Zuko felt the tiredness rolling over him at the sight of Master Lu, keeping the court manners as though he were not sitting unshaven and unbathed in a filthy cell.

"Why, Master Lu?" The words came before he could think. "Why did you lie to my father?"

"Forgive me, my prince. I did not mean to cause you unrest."

"Then you shouldn't have lied!" Zuko took deep breaths, trying to calm the furnace in his head. "You should ask forgiveness of your wife and children, not me. How do you think Sanno will feel to hear his father is in prison?"

Master Lu closed his eyes, his face etched with lines of pain. "I'm sorry. I thought it necessary to protect you."

"Yes, because it worked so well." Zuko's mouth twisted, and the heat started again. Why did this keep happening? He drew his head back and slammed his head into the bars, once, twice, and welcomed the ringing ache of it.

"Stop! Zuko, stop!" A hand grasped his shirt at the shoulder, the forearm imposing itself under his chin so he could not harm himself. "Please."

"Sir." Zuko took Master Lu's dirt-grimed hand in both of his. "What's happening to me?"

"You're in pain." Lu reached his other hand through the bars and passed it down the side of Zuko's face, smoothing away some of the howling in his mind. "Of course you're angry, and confused. I would be worried if you weren't."

Zuko let Master Lu go as his teacher drew back to sit down on the floor of the cell. They sat knee-to-knee, almost, with the bars in between.

"Azula wouldn't be. She would hunt down the men responsible, and... take revenge."

"You are not your sister, your Highness. Be thankful you are not."

"No, I'm not her." Zuko shivered at the memory of white bones in dark earth. "But I do need to find those responsible for the attack, to clear your name."

"To that end I understand you will be looking for a man of Kang's description, for a start." Master Lu fussed with the folds of his standard-issue shirt. "And the bodies of the enemy we buried, those will be investigated as well?"

"I think the local investigators are working on it." Zuko winced at the memory. He knew it was necessary, but to put people of Fire in the ground to rot, instead of sending them to a clean rest...

They talked a while longer, discussing the investigation, the state of the prison food, and how Master Lu's family was taking the news. They talked about the people Zuko had come to think of as his comrades. Ming's injuries were severe enough, made worse when she tried to help Khoujin and rescued Lijin from the fire, that they weren't sure she could ever return to active duty. _Really, it's an honor to serve._ Zuko bowed his head.

Tan Zui and the two other surviving guards who had switched sides at Tamalan were under suspicion and in prison themselves. Tan complained about the quality of the food every time he saw Master Lu.

"Did you hear from Sa Ye? Is she okay?"

"I think it bodes well that I have not heard from her." Master Lu's mouth twitched in a smile. "Considering where I am now."

The thought of her alone in this place... Zuko saw, once again, Khoujin twisting from the arrows that struck him, and heard Sa Ye weeping. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to erase the images.

"I'm sorry, your Highness, that was inappropriate," said Master Lu." As far as I know she is safe in the servants' quarters. She must be busy adjusting to her new environment."

"Busy is good." Busy meant having no time to drown in waking nightmares. It meant collapsing into bed at the end of the day, too tired to lie awake remembering, sometimes too tired to dream.

"I hope you don't think less of her for not trying to see you." Master Lu looked troubled. "The palace is a complex place."

"It's all right. I wouldn't want to see me, if I were her." That must have been why she stopped traveling with him in his carriage after the attack. _Ungrateful little..._ he pressed the anger down until it hurt.

And it wasn't like he had sought her out, either. He had no idea what to say to any of the people who had lost friends and family because of him. The letter he meant to send to Tamalan went unwritten, day after day.

"I'm sure she doesn't blame you for what happened to Khoujin." Master Lu seemed about to say more, then pursed his mouth in a line. Zuko made a non-committal sound because he didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"I am glad Shun is by your side, at least. It is ironic, given the prejudice against his background, but no one can doubt he fought valiantly that night."

"Like he did at Tamalan." Zuko preferred to think of Tamalan; memories of Shun from the night of the attack brought the taste of blood to his mouth. "It can still happen, though. It's the more reason to move quickly on this investigation."

"I will admit, your Highness, I have a personal interest in a speedy result." Master Look cast a glance at his surroundings.

"So do I." Zuko cleared his throat, nervous but unable to put it off anymore. "I hoped to bring this up after your release, but it seems to be gaining speed. Did you hear about the planned invasion of Huakang and Beiyang?"

Master Lu's answer was immediate. "No, Prince Zuko. You will not involve yourself in this matter."

"What! I only asked if you knew-"

"The answer is no. It is too dangerous, it is not your place, I forbid you to intervene in it, and I refuse to help you in any way." Master Lu turned his head away from Zuko's best pleading puppy look.

"But what about all the things we talked about that night, with the townsfolk-"

"Do you mean on the night of the attack?" Master Lu's face when he turned it back to him was colder than Zuko had ever seen. "Don't you see, your Highness? The war and the interests bound up in it were the reasons the assassination attempt happened. Make no mistake, if you disturb a bat-hornet lair you will be stung. Again."

Zuko slumped down where he sat. Master Lu rubbed his forehead, then scratched his head through his hair. "What I would not give for a bath... Listen, my Prince. I cannot sit by and watch you endanger yourself time and again. At least in Tamalan you had the law on your side, and you are still living with the consequences. But this," he gripped the bar between them, trying to meet Zuko's eye, "this is an unimaginably more dangerous game, and there are no rules."

"At Tamalan-" Zuko subsided.

"Yes, at Tamalan?" Master Lu raised his eyebrows.

Zuko screwed his eyes shut. "I burned your letter. At Tamalan. I didn't know I was on the right side of the law when I fought for the village."

The silence stretched on until Zuko opened an eye to peek. Master Lu had fallen on his behind, his mouth half open.

"I'm sorry."

"But..." Still staring, the Master of Laws and Decrees gathered himself up to sit with some kind of dignity. "What if I had told you that what you were doing was illegal? Your father's wrath would have fallen on you, and the consequences-"

"I didn't want to know, just in case it was illegal." Zuko looked down. "I wanted to save the village."

"Why?"

He could give a dozen different answers here. Because it was the right thing to do, because these were his subjects, because he had thought it was what his father wanted. But something told him that nothing but the deepest truth would have any effect on Master Lu.

"Sir." Zuko looked up to face him. "You know my lady mother is no longer with us."

Master Lu glanced around for listening ears, even though Zuko's guard outside the door would tell them if anyone approached. "Prince Zuko, I have warned you before about-"

"I didn't ask questions about her, if that is what you fear. But I did try to find out, through agents."

"My Prince..."

"And then when I went on the tour around the Nation, I couldn't help but think maybe, just maybe, if she heard of me- I started looking for her everywhere. The fruit-sellers, shopkeepers, fishwives. Any one of them could be her, right?" The disappointment pricked at his eyes.

"I didn't find her, of course. But I found something stranger. None of the women was her, but—in a way—they were _all_ her." He recalled Sa Ye's tears streaking her makeup, how Madam An dimpled as she watched her son. _That's what moms are like._

"So I feel like, almost like..." Zuko's hands clenched into sweaty fists. "The Fire Nation is my mother now. Is that strange?" He braced himself to hear how stupid that was.

Master Lu's gaze went somewhere past him, as though looking through Zuko.

"Master Lu?"

"A dragon."

"Master Lu, sir, are you all right?" Zuko raised himself, ready to call a prison guard in case his teacher was feeling sick.

Lu stirred, and his eyes fixed on Zuko instead of beyond him. He heaved a sigh. "Quite, your Highness."

"Sir-"

"You are determined on this course of action." Master Lu's voice was gentle.

"I want to help if I can." Zuko swallowed. "I have to."

"And you will speak out against this invasion whether or not I help you, even if I outright forbid it."

"I'm sorry." Despite the words he held Master Lu's eyes, unable to feel ashamed.

"Very well, then. I will guide you the best I can." Master Lu shifted to a kneeling position and bent forward in obeisance. "My liege."

Zuko bowed his head in acknowledgment, a thrill going through him at the unfamiliar title. Outside the window of the prison the westering sun sank in a glory of darkness and flame.

* * *

Dusk had fallen by the time Iroh sat down at her bedside. The lamp on the table beside the bed brought a soft glow to the room, lending its light to the girl's face even as it outlined the room in shadow.

"General Iroh." She tried to sit up, and winced when she put weight on her right elbow.

Iroh made shushing noises and gestured at her to lie back. "Please, child. There is no need for formality."

The scent of mint filled the air as quiet footsteps approached from behind him. The servant girl, so deft she never seemed to fully touch anything, placed the tray on the bedside table and helped Sa Ye lie back.

"Thank you, Kila." Iroh nodded to her.

"You're Kila?" Sa Ye looked up at the girl adjusting her pillow to get her in a comfortable position. "I was supposed to fill in your shift yesterday, sorry. Or was it the day before?"

"It's all right." Kila pulled the cover over Sa Ye and gave her a pat. "Rest." She poured tea into the teacups, freshening the air, bowed to Iroh, and closed the door behind her as she left.

"Will you be all right holding the teacup?" When she nodded, Iroh handed her the glossy porcelain cup with tendrils of steam rising above it. She moved her bandaged right arm as little as possible, but her left moved freely enough.

"Thank you. You really shouldn't be handing me my tea, General."

"I should be doing a great deal more for you. I hope to do what I can to repay you for your service."

The girl blushed at that and seemed about to protest, but Iroh went on. "Today, however, I will not keep you from your rest any longer than necessary. I am afraid I must trouble you with more questions."

"Oh, it's not as though I'm sick." Sa Ye placed a hand beneath her navel, where the budding roundness showed through the sheet. "Doctor Yi just wanted to be sure. Please, ask whatever you need."

"Your Elder Lao Tai, the one who gave you this task." Iroh frowned down at his cup. "I have met him only once, and many years ago. He is... a spiritual man, given to visions?"

"Oh yes, he's known for talking to spirits. It's because of his friend Yan, Khoujin's great-uncle. It seems family tradition, almost." She gripped the warmth of her cup, her eyes haunted. "Dying young."

"I am sorry, child. It is another debt we owe you."

"You've already done too much." She swallowed. "Some say Elder Lao is crazy, but I don't believe it. He's led the village through good times and bad, he says it's what Yan would have wanted him to do."

"I only wish all leaders were so dedicated." Iroh glanced over at Sa Ye's cup and refilled his own. "Do you know how the headpiece came to be in his possession?"

"No, sir. Only that he found it traveling. Maybe Yan saw it in a dream—when he lived they called him The Dreamer, I heard."

"I see." Iroh paused a moment in thought. "And you knew nothing of the content of his letter?"

"I can't hardly read, General, sir. Master Lu was teaching me some, but..."

"And he will again, if all goes as planned." He touched her bandaged hand. "So Elder Lao told you nothing about your mission, other than to bring the burden to Ty Sian or myself—without telling anyone, even Zuko, about it?"

Sa Ye nodded. "I don't think he imagined how hard it might be. It shouldn't've been, except everything went so wrong. Lady Ty Sian left before I could talk to her. I might have asked Prince Zuko to let me see you, except the guards came first."

"The dismissal of the Lady Chamberlain was completely improper." Iroh shook his head. "The new Lady Chamberlain's first act was what Ty Sian refused to do without proof, allowing guards to search the servants' quarters." He looked at Sa Ye with pity and wonder. "So you thought to jump out a window, making yourself suspect."

"I know I shouldn't have, with the baby and all." Sa Ye looked down at the bedspread. "But they would have taken the things from me. Who knows who might have gotten a hold of them, or how it might have been used against you? And if they questioned me..." A shudder ran through her. "If there was a chance to stop that, I had to try."

Iroh looked away and cleared his throat. "As I have said, we owe you much, Zuko and I."

"Might I have more tea, then?" She held out her cup empty cup to be filled. "I have a question, too, General. You remember that I told you a wingcat led me to you. Was that- was I seeing things when I hit my head?" She touched the heavy dressing of gauze and bandages over her right temple.

"If that is the case, I must hit my head on a regular basis." Iroh sipped his tea with a contemplative look. "Your description matches Miao Miao, a kitten who died under tragic circumstances. She is content in her shrine most of the time, but seems to like being near her mistress when she can."

"Her-" Sa Ye gasped. "Shao Miao, of course. Miao Miao was Lan's cat!"

"A well-loved companion." Iroh's eyes were downcast. "Perhaps she took a liking to you because you are Lan's friend. Perhaps she had reasons of her own. Spirits are not easy to understand, but in this we were fortunate."

"Are you sure Lan and Zhuling will be all right? They helped me escape, but they didn't know anything about my plans."

"They are under no suspicion for now. You will see them in a few days when they are here on rotation." Iroh raised his eyebrows. "I hear Sergeant Cheng was adamant about their innocence, in fact. Something about a slippery floor."

Sa Ye looked across the room at the urn on a table, its smooth surface seeming to give off a light of its own. "She's the one who replaced Khoujin's urn, wasn't she. It's nicer than the one she..." She bit her lip. "I don't know how to feel."

"I completely understand. And now, I will leave you to your rest." Iroh put his empty cup down on the table and started gathering the tea things on the tray. He waved Sa Ye back when she tried to help, and took her cup from her hands.

Sa Ye spoke again as he was about to leave. "Just one more question, if you could. When I carried Elder Lao's letter with me... I never opened it, but some of the writing showed through on the outside."

"And?""Well, I couldn't read much of course. I still only know a hundred letters, if that. But I did recognize two." She fidgeted with the hem of a sleeve. "'Dragon' and 'fire.' What has dragonfire to do with Prince Zuko?"

"Sa Ye." Iroh took her good hand in his. "I say this with all the affection and gratitude I bear you. It is best for you and your son that you know nothing more of this matter."

She nodded. "I understand. It's just that I get so afraid."

"As do I. One would be foolish not to." Iroh patted her hand and released it.

When Iroh returned to his room, he lit the lamp on his writing desk with a gesture and took out writing utensils. His brush moved rapidly down the sheet of paper, leaving a trail of swirling letters.

He wrote:

_As the lotus floats upon the currents of the stream_ _and the leaves fly in autumn, so do the tides of life change, my friend. May the good things in your life stay constant and the vicissitudes of time never lead you astray._

An informed reader would read:

_These signs were not brought to us by accident._ _Zuko is one of the ones who will bring balance to the world. Elders, I beg you to consider the spirit-sent vision and use every __means in our power to protect Prince Zuko. I fear what might happen, as the shadows close daily around him..._

* * *

"Just tell me what you want!" Yenzi spread her hands. "What's the point of these questions? Yes, I said there were two arrows in the guard when we found him, and yes, there were really three. How could I possibly overlook that detail." She placed a finger on her chin, pretending to think. "Maybe because, oh, he was sort of dead and his pregnant wife was screaming over him? Girl has a set of pipes, I'll give her that."

"This isn't a joke, Miss Tien."

"You think?" Her voice rose sharply. "Why are you finding fifty-five inconsistencies in my story, when you should be finding the people who tried to kill Prince Zuko?"

"You have to understand, this is a matter of national security. I think you'll find it in your interest to cooperate."

"I don't even know what you're saying! I've been telling you the same story for hours and you won't let up, am I a suspect, are we suspects and if we are just go ahead and charge us you _bastards_-" her voice gave out on a choked sob as she dropped her face into her hands.

"I think we're done for the day." The interrogator gestured to the guard at the door. "Escort Miss Tien Yenzi off the premises."

Yenzi rubbed a hand over her face and stood to follow the guard out. Her head drooped with weariness, yet her eyes were sharp as a blade as she glared from behind her hair at the gloom of the hallway.

* * *

_Next: More stories to make sense of confusing times._


	32. Interlude 4: Rumors

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Interlude 4: Rumors**

* * *

Previously on _Shadow of the Dragon King_:

"What's your name?" Zuko's voice was hoarse.

"Sa Ye, your Highness. I am yours to command." (Chapter 4: Tamalan)

"Don't tell me what he would have wanted," Sa Ye lifted her head to meet his eyes. "Yes, I happen to know he would agree with me. He was my husband-"

"-on paper, only because Master Lu drew up the certificate after the funeral. The story of your marriage on the road is as thin as the paper that proves it." (Chapter 10: Flames in the Night)

* * *

Out behind the servants' quarters, the servant girls brought in baskets of washed sheets to hang on clotheslines. Silk and cotton waved like wings in shades of russet and gold as the women ducked in and out of the lines of hanging fabric, going from blurred outlines to sunlit forms and back again. Their voices drifted through the corridors and passages created by the sheets, calling to each other, rising in laughter, dipping into whispered conversation.

"Did you hear that story about the Prince and one of the girls?" Two serving girls carried a basket of washing between them, sunlight through red cotton falling across them as they walked.

"It's not just 'a' girl, I saw her! She was Lan's old roommate." They reached an empty section of clothesline and put down their burden.

"It can't be true, can it?" One servant eyed their surroundings for eavesdroppers as she bent to peel a wet sheet away from the pile in the basket.

"The girl is pregnant, if that's what you mean. They say she's starting to show." They shook out the sheet together and arranged it over the line, then fastened it into place with clothespins.

"But I heard she was married. Surely the baby's not... you know." A nervous giggle.

"From what I hear," the girls moved down the line and shook out the next sheet, "she was part of the _hospitality_ at one of the villages he visited. And the story of her wedding stinks like week-old fish. No one from the Prince's retinue can say when it happened, or how, and when they do talk their stories don't match."

Her companion gasped. "Are you saying the marriage was fake?"

"How would I know? You missed a corner there." The sheet smoothed out and pinned into place, they moved on. "But the man who's supposed to be her husband is dead—conveniently, if you ask me."

The basket lurched as the other girl stopped walking. "What are you saying? You're not accusing the Prince of-"

"You little idiot, you almost ruined the wash!" Her companion snatched the basket away and put it down with a thud. "I'm not accusing anyone of anything. All I'm saying is, the story doesn't fit." She yanked a sheet from the basket and tried to shake it out by herself.

Her partner took the other end before the wash could touch the ground. "Who's the idiot? You're the one saying those things about the Prince where anyone could hear."

"Well then, why did she panic during a search and flee from the guards? And why did the General shelter her?" The girls glared at each other over a length of gold-dyed sheet, pulling at it as though to tear it apart.

"Enough with the rumors." They pinned up the sheet, smoothing out the creases from their rough handling. "Next you'll be spreading that story about Prince Zuko being the Avatar."

"Of course not. But admit it, it's the only explanation that makes sense." They picked up the basket, only half full now but unsteady between them as they moved at different paces. "The girl is pregnant with a royal bastard. That's why she was terrified of being found out, and why the General keeps her hidden away."

"Keep wagging that tongue against your betters." The basket dropped to the ground with more force than necessary. "And we'll see what happens to it."

They worked through the rest of the load in silence.

* * *

_Next: Investigations get underway, and confrontations abound with enemies and allies alike._


	33. Chapter 14: Confrontations 1 of 3

Notes: All hail Amy Raine, beta-reader extraordinaire! She was the one who whipped this chapter into shape by advising me to focus the action, making the pace much tighter and saving you some two chapters of reading. And this is me we're talking about, so you know two chapters ain't no laughing matter.

Amy's Book 3 AU starring Azula, "The Only Truth that Sticks," is updating both here and on AO3. In fact, don't bother with this story. Go read that one.

The reference to Zhao's army career is a bit of speculation about the episode "The Great Library," plus his mention during the Siege on the North of working under General Shu.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 14: Confrontations**

* * *

Previously:

"Hour of the Ox. Dark-clad guy, could have been a servant." Mai toyed with the edge of a sleeve. "He came straight to the library and searched your writing desk. He looked at a couple of things, put everything back and then left." (Chapter 9: Excursions)

"The dismissal of the Lady Chamberlain was completely improper." Iroh shook his head. "The new Lady Chamberlain's first act was what Ty Sian refused to do without proof, allowing guards to search the servants' quarters." (Chapter 13: Questions)

The Firelord's order been curt and to the point. Do nothing, and return immediately to the palace.

"Do nothing," Prince Zuko had looked without seeing at the village where people went about their day. "Nothing," he whispered. (Chapter 8: The Dragon Prince)

* * *

"And... forgive me, your Highness, but do you have any thoughts on who might want to harm you?"

There was pain in the boy's voice as he answered. "I honestly don't know."

"Did you receive any threats, sir, before or after the attack?"

"Not until I was on my way back from Tamalan. And even then it was vague..."

Sergeant Cheng leafed through an interrogation logbook, listening with half an ear to Constable Hua and Prince Zuko. Just as she expected, there wasn't much that was helpful from the boy. Talking to the victim was a formality that needed to be observed, and given her role as field leader of the task force and the victim's high status it was just her good luck that she had to sit in.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Prince Zuko." Hua bowed to the Prince.

"It's no trouble, Constable."

Cheng closed the logbook she had been reading. "Thank you, sir."

"You're welcome." Zuko hesitated. "Sergeant, can we talk for a minute?"

_No,_ she felt like snarling. She had too much to do thanks to the boy's uncle handing her a leadership position in the task force. She was glad enough to do it after the Lady Chamberlain had led her by the nose like a blind oxboar, but between jealous superiors treading on her heels and little to no sleep she didn't have time to babysit little boys.

She took a breath.

"What about, sir? Go on, Hua." As the Constable saluted and left she went to sit in the chair across from Zuko that Hua had vacated. The Prince's sitting room chairs were too soft, and threatened to lull her to sleep. She narrowed her eyes, bringing the blurred oval of his face into focus.

"I wanted to know how the investigation was going, ma'a- uh, Sergeant." Prince Zuko twiddled his fingers. Was she that intimidating? Maybe she should tell him her habit of squinting was from nearsightedness and not irritation.

"Too early to tell, sir. We're following a few leads."

"That's good." He looked sideways at her. "So, how do you know my uncle? He speaks very highly of you."

She wondered if the young prince knew the tales floating around the palace about how she knew the General, from the theory that she was his lover to the one where she was his bastard daughter. She considered telling the kid a lurid combination of the two, but decided that was mean even for her.

"I worked closely with him on an investigation a few years back." She deliberately kept the dates vague. It wouldn't do for Prince Zuko to take an interest.

"What about?" Blast the kid.

"You should ask the General if you want to know." She looked at the boy, finding traces of the grandfather in the young face. She was an old enough palace hand not to blab about investigating the death of the previous Firelord, especially to the son of the prime suspect.

"I see." Prince Zuko nodded. "I'll be focused on something else for a while, and I need someone I can trust with the investigation. I think you'll do a great job."

"Thank you, sir." Cheng stifled a yawn. She wondered if 'something else' had anything to do with the invasion everyone wanted to talk about, but her work didn't concern the war.

As he talked her mind wandered to the logbook she had been reading. That hawk-handler at the Department of Correspondence smelled, and not just of bird droppings. His expenses were too-

"-Shun?"

"Sorry?" She came back to the room and Prince Zuko watching her.

"I said, do you know Shun Li by any chance? He's on my guard detail."

"Oh, him. Yeah, I do. I mean—yes, sir." Had Li been talking about her to the Prince? He didn't seem the type to brag. "Did he say something?"

"No, but when your name came up he kind of," Zuko shrugged, "twitched."

"Ah. That sounds like him."

"So..." Zuko's gaze was expectant.

She hit him with her sunniest smile. "Why the interest in Shun's sex life, your Highness?"

"His-" The boy choked and turned purple while she jumped to her feet.

"You'll receive an interim report shortly. By your leave, sir."

Cheng grabbed her things and escaped past a scandalized-looking guardswoman and a guardsman who was trying to keep a straight face. She would land in the fire if General Iroh heard about the conversation, but she was willing to bet the young prince would not get the first word out without an implosion of blushing.

She almost whistled as she walked back to the offices of the task force. Maybe this job wasn't all bad.

* * *

Shun stood with his dao blades out to either side, feet sliding apart over the stones of the training yard. "Now try to hit me, Prince Zuko."

Zuko's face closed in determination as he drew his dao and separated it in one fluid motion. He kicked the ground, propelling himself across the space between them. His training blades split the air toward Shun's neck and side.

Shun's left-hand blade knocked one blade out of the way and blocked the other. He swept his free right-hand blade around at Zuko, who broke the contact and spun away.

"You have a sword, use it!" Shun pressed the attack and Zuko, already breathing hard, brought his blade up to parry. "You don't have to run from steel like other benders. Don't give ground unless you see the advantage in it."

Zuko's breath came ragged as he stumbled back, avoiding Shun's blades and parrying when he could not. The guards stationed around the yard watched in tense silence.

"I said use that sword to hit, or d'you want to find a nice rock to hide under?" Shun's blade blurred by Zuko's defenses before the boy could respond. Shun turned his grip so the steel whizzed by Zuko's head instead of hitting him, his ponytail whipping in its passage.

Zuko's gasp of relief turned into a cry of pain when Shun's other blade struck Zuko's right-hand blade away. It went clattering across the ground while Shun advanced and spun at the same time, each strike aimed at a vital organ. Zuko shrank away clutching his remaining blade.

Shun stopped, lowering his blades, while Zuko tried to catch his breath.

"Sodding glowfly can't stand and face a blade," Shun muttered. Aloud he said: "This isn't working. Your form is solid but you have firebender reflexes. When an attack comes your first instinct is to get out of the way, not to use your sword."

"I can do it." Zuko glared at the ground at his feet. "There has to be a way. More training-"

"It's not about training." Shun cut into Zuko's words. "It's what's in your head. Fire is an extension of you. Steel is not."

"You're wrong." Zuko strode toward his dropped sword. "We'll resume the sparring session."

He halted when Shun thrust a blade across his path.

"What are you doing?" Shun's eyes were cold as he looked down at his pupil.

Zuko looked at him in confusion. "Retrieving my blade."

"I see, sir." Shun's voice turned mild. "We will continue the drill when you are fully armed again. Is that what you mean?"

Zuko eyed the fallen blade, then Shun. "Uh... yes?"

"You think it works like that?" The snarl resounded from the walls around the yard, making Zuko flinch away. "Some enemy's going to let you fetch your weapon in the middle of a fight?"

Shun went to the dao blade and kicked it away, sending it skidding across the yard until it bumped up against a wall next to a startled guard.

"You think it's easy to be a swordsman, hotshot? Let's see what you got." Shun turned back to Zuko, who looked to either side as though contemplating running away or signaling the guards. The guards looked to each other in question, their feet starting from their positions.

"I never said it was eas-"

Shun swung at him. Zuko parried but Shun refused to let up. Zuko retreated in steps and then bounds, backing away in a curving line from the center of the yard and toward its south wall.

Zuko pulled up his blade just in time to block a blow that would have crushed his head had it landed, but the force of it sent him flying against the wall behind him. He sprawled to the ground and lay there a moment before he raised himself to his hands and knees with a grimace.

A booted foot entered his field of vision. Zuko recoiled and scuttled backward like a lobster-crab, away from Shun who followed him with a strange light in his eyes.

Zuko waved back the guards who were about to close in. He moved away along the wall, watching Shun in perplexed wariness much as his guards did.

"I'm sick a' wasting my time on some bender brat who thinks he knows what it is to take up a sword." Shun stared down at the prince with unfocused eyes. "What do you know what's it like, to be born with nothing and claw in the dirt for every scrap?"

"Why do you think I don't understand?" Zuko lifted his chin, rebellion in his eyes.

" 'Cause you can't." Shun pointed his blade in Zuko's face. "Admit it now and we can end this farce."

"I already told you." Zuko's hand, which had been feeling the ground around him, found and closed around the hilt of his fallen blade. "You're wrong!"

He jumped to his feet, bringing both blades up in a whirling advance. Shun crossed his own dao before himself, eyes narrowing.

Then his eyelids peeled back in shock even as his pupils shrank to pinpricks. The dark expanse of the irises filled with reflected fire.

The arcing flames from Zuko's dao blades punched through Shun's defenses like they were paper and struck him in the chest. He swayed and threw a foot back for balance, his eyes still wide in disbelief.

Zuko rushed through the flames, the blades in his hands trailing fire with each swing. Shun defended himself quicker than thought but his whole form had gone slack, his gaze never leaving the flaming blades. The men stationed around the yard watched in open-mouthed concentration without even a pretense of keeping alert.

The prince leapt into the air and bore down with a shout, his blades crashing against Shun's in a contest of will and strength. Shun's guard held, but a knee buckled under the assault.

Zuko landed in a crouch before Shun could recover. With a neat pivot he delivered a slice to the back of Shun's knee that would have severed a tendon if the blade were real.

Scattered cheers broke out as Shun toppled to the ground, and then the guardsmen remembered themselves and went back to watchful silence. The flames flickered from the dao as Zuko got to his feet.

"Are you all righ-"

"What did you do?" Shun raised himself on his elbows.

"What? What did I do?" Zuko looked at the smoking blades in his hands as if noticing them from the first time.

"You bent fire." Shun sat up. "With a _sword._" His eyes never left Zuko even as he broke into a coughing fit.

"Are you okay?" Zuko tossed his dao aside to bend over Shun, and started when a hand clamped around his forearm.

"What did you _do?_"

"I'm sorry! I know you said I wasn't to firebend during training, but it was an accident and-"

"Prince Zuko." Shun's voice was hoarse. "I'm not blaming you. I'm asking..." his mouth worked, trying to form the question. "What did you see when you did—that?" His gaze went to the still-smoking dao on the ground. "What did it feel like?"

Zuko rocked back on his feet when Shun released him. He thought for a moment, and his voice was soft when he spoke.

"I felt like the dao was fire in my hands."

"Fire." Shun sounded faint. "You thought it was fire."

"I mean they're a lot alike, right? The dao is one and two at the same time, like fire can merge and split. They're both quick and flexible. When you said I wasn't making the dao an extension of me, that got me thinking..."

Shun hunched forward where he sat, dropping his head into his hands in what looked like despair.

"Look, I'm sorry." Zuko's fists clenched by his sides. "If it's so wrong I'll never do it again!"

Shun looked up with an effort. "You win."

"What?" Zuko blinked, processing the words. "No! I caught you by surprise, that's all."

"Every time I try to get out, I get kicked deeper in." Shun tried to rise, but stumbled. "I can't leave. I have to, I can't..."

"Are you really all right?" Zuko bent to help him up but Shun pushed him away and refused to look at him.

Zuko gave up and sat down cross-legged across from Shun. A few moments passed in silence.

"Maybe I can't understand the way of the sword, or your life." Zuko glanced at Shun, who was staring at something only he could see. "But my fire isn't just flame and heat. It's everything I am, like the dao is for you. Maybe I can understand the dao through the fire."

Shun grunted in what sounded like grudging agreement.

"So teach me." Zuko got to his feet and held a hand out. "Sifu."

Shun hesitated, then caught the proffered hand to be pulled to his feet. For a moment he stood dazed in the sun, taking in his surroundings as though he saw them for the first time.

He turned to Zuko. "We meet this time two days on. Make sure to practice your forms."

A smile broke out across Zuko's face. "Of course."

* * *

Shun pulled his topknot free and upended the basin of water over his bowed head. Zuko looked on in amusement, splashing his hands and face at his own basin.

"You'll want to spar against different weapons." Shun shook out his wet hair and leaned against a wall of the training yard, shaded by the awning over the corner washing area. "I want you to train against fire, jian, spear, whatever you can get."

"You mean with other people?" Zuko looked bashful. "Do you think I'm good enough?"

"That's how you get better." Shun took a towel held out by a servant and draped it over his shoulders. "Projectile defense will build your reflexes, and it's one of the dao's strengths. I can throw a knife if I have to, but your little friend is better with them."

"Mai?" Zuko took great interest in splashing water on his face, which had turned pink. "I didn't know you'd seen her train."

Shun skipped a beat, his face frozen. "I haven't," he said in a neutral voice. "I think you told me."

"She's pretty amazing, huh?" Zuko cleared his throat and dried his face on a towel.

Shun changed the subject too quickly. "And Cheng Jien is an expert with the double-edged blade. She'll be happy to knock you around a while."

"Sergeant Cheng?" Zuko ducked his head, his face going from pink to crimson. His fumbling hands fell on his washbasin; he picked it up and threw the entire contents in his face with a giant splash.

He put the basin down with a clang that echoed in the silence. "That uh, that sounds great!"

"Right." Shun edged away from Zuko. "I'd best go prepare. I have that job for your uncle."

"Yeah, and I have that meeting." Zuko wiped the streaming water out of his eyes. "Be careful, Shun."

Shun snorted. "A master has no need to be careful."

"Okay. Be careful, Shun."

Shun glared at him and stalked out of the shade of the awning. Zuko laughed and dried off what he could before he left with his guards, pulling his plastered shirt away from his skin.

* * *

Zuko shut the door to the meeting room so hard that it shook in its frame. He stalked down the hallway, a servant scurrying out of his way when she saw the look on his face.

"Prince Zuko."

He did not turn at the call and left through a side door to the garden. Out in the sun, he walked down a lane between flowering shrubs with his mouth set and brows drawn down.

"Your Highness." The young man caught up to Zuko with his longer strides.

"What do you want, Rang Han?" Zuko walked faster.

"For you will return to the meeting you called, of course."

"Why?" Zuko threw his hands up as he spun to face the man. "When I go back, will they be less useless?"

"I doubt it." Rang's pale eyes glinted. "But you invited them. You should return if only to chase them away."

Zuko's lips twitched. "Then I'll be kicking you out with them, since you're also my guest."

"Let me assure you, my Prince, I am no stranger to being unwelcome."

Zuko crossed his arms and leaned against a flowering tree. "More of the nobility oppose the invasion of Huakang and Beiyang than I thought. The problem is, all of them together don't have the courage of a rabbitmouse."

"I think they have reason, your Highness." Rang Han swept his long hair out of his face. "Opposing the war is a dangerous business in this country."

"And yet you're in it." Zuko gave him an appraising glance. "From what I heard of you, I didn't think you would risk yourself for any cause."

"Most causes are not worth risking myself for, of course." Rang threw his nose in the air, making Zuko chuckle. "But ending the war? That is something I believe in."

"I know what you mean." Zuko resumed walking. "The strain on our finances and the suffering of our people are unsustainable. Huakang and Beiyang are both heavily defended ports close to Ba Sing Se, and the losses may be greater than any we have seen in years."

"Oh, that." Rang plucked a blossom from a shrub as he passed. "There are different kinds of losses. Lives may be replaced. Civilization cannot. " He sniffed at the flower and let it fall, and his foot crushed it as he walked on. "It is time to ask what we lose of ourselves by mingling with the dirt people."

Zuko's feet scraped to a stop. "You mean Earth Kingdom subjects?"

"Dirt is dirt. The deeper we move into the heart of the Earth Kingdom, the more we become... involved," a muscle twitched next to Rang's nose as though he caught a stench, "with those people. The capture of Huakang and Beiyang, or even one of them, will expand that contact even further."

"That's, uh..." Zuko avoided Rang's eyes. "One of my guards is from the Colonies, and he saved my life many times over."

"Colonists. They are acceptable labor, provided they have been properly civilized. But dreaming that we can do the same with the great mass of the Earth Kingdom, so much more numerous than we are, is just that—a dream." Rang waved as though flicking aside an invisible insect. "They will drag us down to them faster than we can pull them up."

"I'm not comfortable with that, Rang." Zuko's mouth clenched in a determined line.

"It does not matter what you are comfortable with." Rang faced Zuko, his hands in his sleeves. "A man takes what allies he can. And if you think half of those others, no, more," he jerked his head the way they had come, "do not think as I do, well."

Zuko broke eye contact first and turned back the way he came. "Come on. I should return and talk to my guests. Or kick them out."

"Of course." Rang Han followed him.

"I have a petition to the Firelord asking him to rethink the invasion." Zuko kicked away a stone in his path. "But they're not going to put their names to it, are they."

"Lady Si Feng may. Either of Huakang or Beiyang will be competition for her family's ports in the Colonies. Never underestimate the ferocity of a woman who had to fend the youth of the Nation away from seven daughters—and the daughters from them." Rang snorted with laughter. "Then there are some minor nobility who will be ignored, and wish to curry your favor. Otherwise, no."

Zuko gave a grunt of frustration. "And you?"

"They will put me in the 'currying your favor' column, and it will drive my father into a rage. So of course I will." A corner of his lips lifted.

"Why would you want my favor?" Zuko reached the garden entrance they had come out of. "I don't give the parties with the drinking and the women."

"Well, sir. Who knows how things may change."

The shadows closed over them as they walked into the building, leaving the golden warmth of the afternoon behind.

* * *

Azula examined herself in the mirror held up by a servant. "What are you so nervous about, Lieutenant? Hold it higher." The maid complied. "So my brother invites a few nobles to a friendly gathering while palace guardsmen strut around asking questions. Hardly a state of emergency."

"A prince of the blood gathers a circle of the nobility around himself, while the Dragon of the West is asking questions about the attempt against the life of his nephew." Zhao paced the floor behind her, his reflection passing in and out of the full-length mirror on the wall. "You need to take this seriously, Princess."

"You're serious enough for both of us." Azula smiled at herself in the mirror, watching the way the gloss on her lips glittered in the lamplight. "My uncle's slutty sergeant can stick her nose wherever she likes, she won't get anywhere."

Zhao tripped over his foot and stumbled to catch his balance. "Where did you hear that word, Princess?" He spun to look at her, a flush creeping up his neck.

"Which- oh, that one. It's what they call her, didn't you know?"

"I would know who said something so vulgar in your presence, your Highness." Zhao crossed his arms. "I will have my sister dismiss them at once, after a sound lashing."

"Please, let's stop pretending I'm still a child." Azula rolled her eyes and turned away from the mirror. "And control your paranoia. I would almost think you did something wrong." She gave him a look full of meaning. "Besides, I think at least one of our friends will cut Uncle's pet project short before it gets out of hand."

"You are right, of course." Zhao swallowed and bowed to her. "Forgive me for disturbing you."

"Of course I'm right." Azula waved the servant and the mirror away. "Wait for me outside, Lieutenant. We will leave together."

When both the servant and Zhao were gone, Azula went up to the full-length mirror and scowled at it. "What are you playing at, Zuzu?" She cast a sidelong glance at the door with a disappointed pout. "And what is a slut anyway?"

She shrugged off the question and touched a strand of hair away from her forehead. She walked away after checking herself head to feet, a smirk back on her face.


	34. Chapter 14: Confrontations 2 of 3

The man ran under a waning sliver of moon, in the shadows of the rocks strewn across the barren landscape. The uneven footing threatened to tumble him to the ground with every step.

"Help me!" His cries scattered from him and lost themselves in the darkness. "Somebody help!"

"It's no use, Kwan," called one of the shadows that chased after him. "Give it up."

Kwan stepped on a loose stone and fell to his full length to the ground. He raised himself on his hands and knees and then painfully to his feet. Turning to the approaching men, the bulk and juts of armor making their outlines inhuman, he raised his hands in supplication.

"How long have known each other, Jiao?" He addressed himself to the man at the head of the group. "All I did was serve the young master with everything I had, you know that!"

"Then you shouldn't have run." Jiao approached him, making Kwan stagger back. "We were going to get you home to Rangmang, out of reach of the red hounds. But you." The fire sprang into Jiao's hand, casting his face into stark light and shadow. "You had to foul it up."

"If you wanted me to stay put you shouldn't have plotted to kill me!" Kwan pointed an accusing finger. "I heard your men talk."

"My men?" Jiao frowned. "I can't believe any of them were dim enough to-"

"So you admit it!" Kwan would have sounded triumphant if his voice were not trembling. "Please, you know I'm loyal to the Rang family. I got scared, that's all."

"Maybe you were loyal, but now?" The fire grew in Jiao's hands. "Sorry, Kwan. I really am."

Kwan raised his arms in a futile gesture of protection, unable to move for terror.

A strike of stone on metal and a loud curse came from one side. Heads snapped toward the disturbance.

"Damned thing won't catch." A man knelt in the shadow of a standing stone some fifteen feet to the left of Jiao. Hunched over a standing cylinder about the thickness and length of a forearm, he looked up from the flint and steel in his hands. "You firebenders got a light?"

"What the- get him!" Jiao turned to see Kwan taking advantage of the distraction to slip away. While his men hurried after Kwan, Jiao punched a jet of flame at the interloper.

The man dropped the flint and stone and jumped into the air over the fire. When the flames were gone the tail of the rocket in its launcher started spitting sparks.

"Thanks." The man, his dark clothes blending into the night and even his face smudged with soot for camouflage, drew a curved blade from the sheath at his side and separated it into two.

"That's a signal rocket!" One of Jiao's men lunged forward, but before he could reach it the rocket leaped shrieking into the shrouding black of the night above, and came apart with a bloom of lights and a thudding clap.

"That's going to bring some of my friends around," the swordsman said calmly. "Leave the poor sod behind and we won't find you worth the trouble. Otherwise..." He spun the dao blades around and held them facing forward.

One of Jiao's men took a backward step. "I think that's one of the prince's guardsmen, what's his name, Shan?"

"Shun," said the swordsman, irritated. "You can't ask me my own name?"

"Sir." Another of the men gave Jiao a sidelong glance. "Maybe we should-"

"Men!" Jiao's voice thundered through the stony landscape. "I want the traitor Kwan dead, now!" His hands pulled fiery tails across the darkness as he charged Shun. Jiao's men came in on either side, pinning Shun in with the standing stone behind his back.

"Well, if you want to dig your own graves." Shun slithered away from Jiao's attacks, then dropped into a crouch to duck a stream of fire. When a guardsman thrust at him with a spear he launched himself into the air, flipped backward once, and landed on top of the standing stone.

He dropped off the top of the stone half a heartbeat before it was bathed in flames, and landed on top of a hapless firebender to cushion his fall.

"Sorry, gotta run." He tumbled off the man and away from several fire blasts, then took off through the looming rocks toward the commotion where a group of Jiao's men pursued Kwan.

He skirted around a rock to the sight of Kwan trapped against another standing stone up ahead. A spearman and a firebender advanced on him, leaving him no escape.

Just as the spearman struck Shun charged him and knocked him out of the way. The bladed tip went wide, but Kwan screamed as the spear grazed the side of his neck.

Growling, Shun slammed his elbow into the spearman's nose with a _crunch._ In the same motion he spun his blade at the firebender, driving him back as the spearman bent double with a hand over his broken nose.

Shun went to stand in front of Kwan as the other men ran up. Behind him Kwan sank down to sit with his back to the rock, clutching at the wound in his neck. The blood running over his fingers was ink-black in the dim light.

"You want to tangle with someone, tangle with me." Shun swept his gaze over the semicircle of men before him. "I'm loads more fun than he is."

The men looked to each other, silently urging each other on until the pressure broke and they surged forward in a rush of booted feet. Shun went into a defensive crouch, ready to spring in any direction.

Then a light fell across Jiao's face, making him blink. The illumination flickered between the standing stones, growing fast, while shouts and footfalls approached from all directions.

"Royal Security Service. Yield yourselves!"

"The hounds are here." Fear spread through the Rang guardsmen. First one and then another peeled away from the ranks, and soon Jiao's squad disbanded around him as men ran into the night. The sound of scuffling ensued as they ran into the royal guards.

Shun hurried to Kwan's side. "You all right?" Kwan's pale face shone in the uneven light, the red seeping through the fingers he clamped over his cut. "It's just a flesh wound, keep some pressure on it." Shun raised his voice. "I have a man down!"

He turned just in time to see Jiao bearing down on them, the blaze around his fist growing larger and larger. Shun threw himself before Kwan-

-and watched Jiao go down with a resounding _thwack_, the fire sputtering out as he fell to his knees and his eyes rolled into his head.

"Idiot." The woman in armor jogged a few paces past Jiao's prone form. She thrust her unblooded blade into the scabbard at her side and turned Jiao over with a foot. "He'll be fine."

"Jien." Shun sagged in relief.

"That's Sergeant Cheng on the job, Guardsman." Her eyes grew sharp as she took a look at Kwan. "And what the blazes did you do to my witness?"

She shoved Shun away and knelt to pat Kwan on the cheek. "Can you hear me? We have a man down! Man down here!" She gripped Kwan's hand over his wound, adding pressure to it. "You're okay now. You're fine."

"You're welcome," Shun grumbled.

"Oh, come off it." Cheng rolled her eyes at him. "That could just as well have been an artery."

At this point the medics rushed in to take Kwan into their care and stabilize him. Shun and Cheng didn't seem to notice.

"It wasn't an artery." Shun scowled. "And if you and your men weren't louder than rhinos in heat, I wouldn't have had to shadow these jokers alone."

"If you'd just secured Kwan before setting the signal off-"

"I could have." Shun got to his feet to loom over her. "If I just killed them all."

"Don't be ridiculous." Cheng looked away, rubbing at Kwan's blood on her hand. "You're not in the Colonies anymore."

Shun's eyes gave off a livid glow against his soot-stained face. "Bitch."

He walked away, shoulders rigid with rage. Cheng opened her mouth, then hesitated.

"Sir, we're ready to take them away."

She turned to see Kwan on a stretcher, his neck bandaged, and Jiao looking groggy and swaying in place with his hands tied behind his back.

"What are you gawking around for? Take them. Go." She flicked her hand. "Make sure that one doesn't snuff and the other one doesn't bend fire. Don't mix them up."

"What about you, Sergeant?"

"I have a report to make." Her gaze went to the darkness Shun had walked into. "This night isn't over yet."

* * *

"Prince Zuko." The voice behind the flames seemed to fill the room from every direction. "What is the meaning of this? I have not granted you an audience."

"Forgive me, Father." Zuko touched his forehead to the floor. "But I have been asking to see you over and over, and-"

"And so you bully your way past my guards?" The smile spread through Ozai's words. "Very well, a little initiative is not an ill thing in a prince. What do you wish to speak of? Be brief."

"Father, I have a petition with me for your consideration." Zuko held up a scroll, and placed it on the floor before him.

There was a pause before Ozai spoke. "What is this petition?"

"Father, I beg you," Zuko raised himself halfway on his hands so he spoke to the dais instead of the floor, "_we_ beg, with all the loyalty and affection we bear your person and our patriotic fervor-"

"I said be brief."

Zuko raised himself to kneeling position. "Father." He looked up at Ozai's seat. "Please, reconsider the mission against Huakang and Beiyang. The people cannot bear the strain of expanding this war."

Ozai was silent for a long moment, before the flames parted like curtains and he walked out from behind them.

"So, Prince Zuko." He descended the steps as Zuko lowered his head, whether in deference or a defensive reaction. "I hear you have been busy lately."

"Father?" Zuko moved only his eyes to watch Ozai's feet come to a stop next to him.

"You have made new friends in the capital, and made a name for yourself throughout the Nation." Ozai paced around Zuko. "You have displayed much energy and determination in matters of state."

"Thank you." Zuko's voice lifted at the end, as though asking a question.

"You must realize, however," Ozai came to stand before Zuko, "that there are those who would use you for their own gain. And when a prince attempts to make decisions in matters such as war, his actions may be... misconstrued."

"Make decisions?" Zuko lifted his head, his eyes frightened. "Father, I wouldn't! I only want to help you make the best decision for our-"

Ozai held up a hand to stop him. "Precisely. I know how loyal you are, Prince Zuko." He bent forward to place a hand on Zuko's shoulder; Zuko flinched at the touch, then warmth sparked in his eyes and his face relaxed into a smile. "Make certain that others know it as well."

"I will, Father!" Zuko straightened his back as Ozai turned away from him. "I- I won't let you down, I promise."

"I am sure." Ozai looked distracted. "Now go."

"Yes, Father." Zuko bowed deep, and stood with another bow. "Thank you."

Zuko parted the drapes to the audience chamber and left through the doors to the hallway, where he paused.

"Oh, good." Azula turned from her conversation with Zhao to narrow her eyes at Zuko. "I was wondering why I was kept waiting."

* * *

The scent of jasmine filled the tea room in the south wing of the palace. Cheng, having declined the tea, had found a bottle of rice wine somewhere and was helping herself to it. Shun glared at the cooling teacup in front of him as though it had done him injury.

"You have both done an excellent job." Iroh took his teacup in both hands and breathed the steam. "The young man Kwan Ziangmin is safe thanks to you, Guardsman, and your investigators have his confession, Sergeant."

"And what a song he sang for us." Cheng sipped from her wine-filled teacup. "He seemed to see it in his best interest to talk."

"This man Kwan. He was seen going into Princess Azula's library the night before the assassination?" Shun did not look up from the table.

"Indeed. While there were no guards posted at the door of the library, based on the testimony of the guards on duty on the night of the fifth, Kwan is the only one who could have accessed the information of Zuko's whereabouts." At Iroh's words Cheng's arm jerked a fraction, but she said nothing as she put her cup down and refilled it.

"And he is Rang Han's personal servant." Shun lifted his head to look at Iroh. "I cannot but think, General, your instruction on the timing of his arrest was rather specific."

"He's right," said Cheng, earning a surprised glance from Shun. "It was a risky plan, to shadow him and wait until he was in actual danger from Rang's guards. It meant Guardsman Shun had to follow them alone once they were outside Royal City. A close thing."

"That is true." Iroh took a thoughtful sip of his tea. "But it is no easy thing for a man to leave behind everything he knew. Sometimes he needs to see the truth for himself. Besides, I had every trust in the two of you." He turned his beaming smile to them in turn.

Shun crossed his arms. "Then there is this matter of Kwan's flight. Evidently he heard two of the Rang guards discuss a plan to kill him. Jiao, Rang's guard lieutenant, was surprised to hear that—and so was I. Anyone trusted with such a sensitive plan is unlikely to discuss it so carelessly, especially where the target can hear."

"You must realize by now, Kwan is not only a servant but a spy as well. Besides, the suspicion was surely in his mind. The tiniest spark," Iroh snapped his fingers, "was enough to light that suspicion into an inferno of terror."

Shun scowled. "And he was processed for his confession, still shaken and wounded, before he could think those events through."

"I like my testimony like my fish," said Cheng. "The fresher the better."

Shun's gaze was cool. "I find it easy to believe you are Princess Azula's uncle, sir."

"She is my blood." Iroh put his cup down and lifted the teapot. "More tea?"

"Thank you, but I should go." Shun rose from his seat.

"I must insist you stay a little longer." Iroh's voice was mild as he put down the pot. "We still have a missing link of the chain to discuss."

"I'm afraid I don't follow."

Cheng looked up at Shun. "We know how Prince Zuko's location went from Princess Azula to Rang Han. The question is how Princess Azula had that information in the first place."

"I wouldn't know anything about that." Shun started to walk around Iroh's seat toward the door.

Iroh stood quicker than the eye could follow and loosed a jet of fire across Shun's path. Shun jumped over the flames, rolled across the floor behind Iroh's seat, and sprang to his feet toward the exit.

Then he came to a sharp halt and took a step back.

"I suggest," Cheng followed him, the tip of her blade never leaving Shun's sternum, "that you listen to what the General has to say."

* * *

"_You_ have an audience with Father?" Zuko took a step toward Azula, his hands clenching at his sides.

"Of course I do." Azula brushed past him. "What kind of uncivilized boor would intrude on the Firelord without his permission?"

She disappeared through the doors while Zuko watched, chest heaving in anger. He wrenched himself away and started stomping down the hall.

"Prince Zuko," called Zhao. "You have grown so much since I last saw you."

Zuko turned and acknowledged the man's bow. "Lieutenant Zhao."

"I heard you have been busy lately." Zhao gave a broad grin. "No doubt the Firelord is thrilled at the interest you take in affairs of state."

Zuko's eyes smoldered before he forced himself to relax. "And I heard you are doing well after you transferred to the Fire Navy. It couldn't have been easy for you."

"The transition from the Army took time and effort." Zhao's eyebrows met in consternation. "Thanks to the the Firelord's grace, however, I have adjusted."

"It was quite a lot of grace after you lost all your men in the middle of the Si Wong desert." Zuko's tone grew hard. "It's just as well you were not court-martialed when you never gave a good account of what you were doing there."

Zhao swallowed and bowed his head. "That is... gracious of you to say, your Highness."

Zuko walked away without looking at him again. Zhao kept his head bowed, his teeth grinding together as Zuko's footfalls faded down the hall.


	35. Chapter 14: Confrontations 3 of 3

Shun backed away from the door and the point of Cheng's sword. Hemmed in by Iroh who closed in next to her, Shun withdrew into a corner and stopped when his back touched the wall. His body went into a defensive crouch that could unfurl into violence in an instant.

Iroh stepped past Cheng to stand in front of Shun, ignoring her hiss of warning. Shun glowered at him, his breathing audible as he held himself in place.

"You could escape if you decided to." Iroh clasped his hands behind his back as though he were out on a stroll. "Are you willing to pay the price?" He glanced at Cheng. "Where would you run to?"

"I'm not getting stuffed in a hole again." Shun wet his lips.

"No, you are not." Iroh shook his head. "Official incarceration is too explosive to consider at this point, considering whom else we would be accusing. As for putting you 'in a hole,' ask yourself." He indicated Cheng next to him. "Would Sergeant Cheng allow you, or anyone, to be abducted and imprisoned in secret?"

"No," Shun and Cheng said at the same time.

Shun spoke down the length of the blade. "You have your moments, but you're too damned stubborn to get involved in something like that."

"And if you did what I think you did," said Cheng, "I'm more interested in kicking your face in than seeing it behind bars."

"That I can deal with." He put a hand to the blade and lowered it. "I don't think you even needed this."

"I needed some way to get you to listen." She sheathed the blade with a scrape of metal on leather. "Think of it as a conversation starter."

"You really sodding suck at conversation, you know that?"

Iroh cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should sit down."

"I'm fine right here, General." Cheng stepped into Shun's space. "So tell me, Guardsman, how long have you been Princess Azula's spy?"

"What the-" Shun scrunched himself into the corner away from her. "You call that an interrogation?"

Iroh raised his hands in a placating gesture. "I believe what she meant to say is, we have evidence-"

"What she means to say is, the hawk that carried Master Lu's message from outside Haishan also had a little something extra." Cheng took a folded bit of paper from inside her shirt and slapped it to Shun's chest.

"Wait, this can't be the actual-" Shun looked down at the note he had taken by reflex, the paper folded lengthwise and then twisted around itself in a series of oblique folds.

"Of course not, but thanks for recognizing it." Cheng snatched the paper from him and crumpled it in her hand. "This fine piece of craftwork is courtesy of Master Chu, hawk-handler at the Department of Correspondence."

"He had what seemed like an easy and profitable arrangement until quite recently." Iroh watched Shun with shrewd eyes. "Any paper he found in a message cylinder folded that way was to be diverted to a middleman."

"We might never have known if Chu hadn't started spending money like it was going out of style." Cheng tilted her head. "He's my hero."

"So you found a hawker with a liking for origami and the expensive life." A muscle ticked in Shun's jaw. "Care to say what this is to do with me?"

"Other than how Chu said one of these little beauties," she opened her hand to show the crumpled scrap of paper, "was in your hawk's message cylinder along with Master Lu's letter?"

"What does that prove? That paper could have been anything. It could have been slipped in at any of the waystations."

"The location of a Prince of the Fire Nation is much more than just 'anything.'" Iroh's voice was heavy.

Shun swallowed. "You don't know that."

"Why would we not?"

Shun's mouth worked, but no words came.

"Of course Chu took a peek." Cheng leaned against the wall between Shun and the door. "The scraps of paper weren't sealed, they were off the record. He's committed a felony in diverting royal correspondence. If he could have read the message, he would have told us what it said."

"But the message was encoded, of course." Iroh spread his hands. "You know this."

"It... it would be, wouldn't it?" Shun clawed at his hair with a hand, pulling the dark strands across his face. "If it's a spy message."

"Is this the way you wish it to be?" Iroh took a step toward Shun. "Master Lu protected Zuko at great personal risk. Now he is paying the price."

"He's going to be all right!" Shun squeezed his eyes shut. "Once we have Rang Han-"

"Is it any wonder you worked so hard tonight to secure that crucial witness?" Iroh came to a stop looking up at Shun. "You would be helping Master Lu, who is in prison because of what you did. Arresting Rang Han would also divert attention from Princess Azula—and you, by extension."

"I had my doubts, but the General was so sure you would get Kwan for us." Cheng shrugged. "He was right."

"And you're playing me just as much as you played Kwan." Shun's eyes flashed. "You can take a dive into the Abyss for all I care. You didn't prove a thing against me."

"Guardsman Shun," said Iroh with weary patience, "since that is what you choose to call yourself, I did not speak to you tonight to find out the truth. I already know."

Shun watched him, wary and coiled to spring.

"I am interested in one thing only; to find out if it is safe to keep you close to my nephew."

Shun blinked. "Prince Zuko?"

"Yes, that would be the nephew I am referring to."

"I assumed I wasn't ever seeing him again." Shun shook his head as though coming awake from a bad dream.

"Believe me, if it were my decision to make..." Cheng raised her hands at a look from Iroh. "But it's not."

"This is a trick." Shun ran a hand through his hair. "There's no way you'll let me go back. You're trying to get what you need out of me, and then you'll throw me away like she did. You all do, in the end."

"Prince Zuko is also Fire Nation royalty, you know."

"I don't mean just Fire Nation." Shun let out a choking sound that failed to be a laugh. "But he's different. How long have I watched him, waiting, _praying_ for him to show his true colors? I followed him to Tamalan because of that. She wanted her brother spied on, sure, but I had to prove it to myself."

"You wanted to make sure he was just like the others," said Iroh. "So he would deserve your betrayal."

"There had to be an angle. Why would he run off to a nothing village to save a blighted pack of peasants?" Shun's hands opened and closed. "He was trying to show up his sister. Gain his father's favor. Something."

"Yet Ozai was against Zuko's helping the village."

"I'll never forget how the boy looked when he found out what the Firelord really thought. It was like a light went... out..." Shun trailed off, his eyes wide, before he collected himself.

"And here I was, lying to this good kid all day and every day. I should have left, but what would she have done to me? How could I leave the real deal—the," he stumbled over the words. "The Dragon King?"

The room was still, as though the words had sucked all other sound from the air.

"Do not call him a king again," Iroh's voice was hoarse, "if you care at all about his safety. Especially not... that."

"He is my lord and liege, the first I chose of my own will." Shun crossed his arms. "The title is just words."

"So you betrayed him, to stay by his side." Iroh's shoulders drooped. Cheng's face was unreadable.

"It even worked." Shun swallowed. "Princess Azula was pleased enough to release me from her service. She hasn't contacted me since."

Iroh leaned closer to him. "What would you do if she called on you again?"

"I'd tell her to go dash her little brains out on the walls of Ba Sing Se," Shun said at once. "There's nothing she can do to make me dance to her tune again."

"And if I were to make the proposition she did, to watch Zuko and report on him?"

"The same, except you already tried those walls for a thousand days or so."

Iroh drew back from Shun, his belly laugh resounding in the room. "I wish we could have met under different circumstances."

"I agree." Shun gave a nod of acknowledgment. "I should have liked the chance to relieve the Dragon of the West of his head."

Cheng flinched, but Iroh just smiled. "One man's loss is another's gain. Hu Xin was a great victory for my father, but I do not doubt your countrymen saw it differently."

"I see your wisdom is far-reaching." Shun stood to attention. "Permission to return to my post?"

"Yes. In fact I have an errand for you, if you would be so kind." Iroh gestured at the door. "Sergeant Cheng's investigators are waiting with the evidence gathered so far in the investigation. Go wake Prince Zuko, debrief him, and tell him we are ready to move against Rang Han." He met Shun's eyes. "Can you do that, Guardsman?"

"Of course." Shun gave a crisp flame salute.

"Excellent." Iroh's gaze moved to Cheng. "Wait one moment while I go get them."

When the door closed behind Iroh, Shun went to Cheng where she stood against the wall. "You still going to bash my face in?"

"I would." She looked away. "But I'd have to touch you."

"Oh come on, don't be like that." He took her shoulders and pulled her close. "You can't blame me for what that vile girl did, or her lackeys for that-"

He jumped back as steel arced out with a hiss.

"Not this again!" He landed in the middle of the room, staring at Cheng with her sword out. "What the crud is wrong with you?"

"Nine men died protecting Prince Zuko." Cheng lowered her blade. "I knew six of them, half had wives and kids. Three of the dead joined up at Tamalan. I didn't know them, but you did. One of them left behind a pregnant wife."

She thrust her sword back into its scabbard as the door opened next to her. "Now get out."

Shun walked out past Iroh without a word. His footsteps were loud in the silence as they receded down the hallway.

* * *

"So, Father." Azula's voice indicated boredom, but she gave Ozai a surreptitious glance. "What did you talk about with dear Zuko?"

"I gave him fair warning." Ozai incinerated the petition Zuko had submitted to him, gazing into the flame in his palm. "As I do for everyone." He looked up from the fading flames. "And how was your talk with your friends?"

"Well, nothing is certain, of course." Azula settled into her seat, the reflected firelight on her face throwing her features into sharp relief. "But I don't believe you will have much problem with the war meeting, Father. The friends I have spoken to are most amenable to the invasion plan. General Shu Bujing can do the honors, if you permit."

* * *

"I still say you're making a mistake."

"Your objection is noted, Sergeant."

"He's the reason your nephew was attacked!" Cheng spun to face Iroh. "It's crazy to let him stay in the palace, let alone return to the prince's side. Don't tell me you bought the yarn he spun you."

"Strangely enough, I do." Iroh looked thoughtful. "It is not the main reason for my decision, though it puts me somewhat at ease."

Cheng threw her hands in the air. "You men and your romanticism. You'll be the death of me."

"If this Shun wanted to harm Zuko, he had many chances to do so without suspicion to himself."

"That doesn't mean anything. He could be waiting for the right chance to strike, or funnel more information to whoever pays him."

"It is a possibility I considered." Iroh rubbed his temples, a pained look on his face. "I made certain Zuko is never under the man's sole guard. It is also why I wanted Zuko—and by extension his guardsmen—kept out of the investigation."

"Except for tonight, when the stakes were highest." She raised a hand before he could speak. "I understand he was the best man for the job, and he had reason to do it well. But it was still risky. And ten hells, sit down before you drop dead away on me."

Iroh sat down at the tea table, a sigh leaking out of him as though he were deflating. Cheng poured him tea, which he reheated with his hands around the cup.

"I understand it would be hard to bring a charge against Princess Azula's spy without touching the Princess." Cheng sat down across from him and filled her own cup with wine. "It would be explosive, as you said."

"Mutual espionage is something of a royal sport." Iroh looked down at his cup, not seeming to feel the heat of it. "We have little steam to run on unless we have proof of more than spying."

"We also need a better source than an enemy combatant using a dead Colonial's name."

"Sergeant..." Iroh gave her a sympathetic look, but Cheng ignored it.

"Kwan wasn't the only one spotted sneaking into Princess Azula's library that night."

Iroh's brows furrowed. "I do not recall any mention of this in the investigation report."

"I told them to leave it off the record." Cheng leaned back in her seat. "It seemed a bit sensitive."

"Who was it?"

"Lady Ty Lee of Si Feng, and Lady Yao Mai Ying. They crept in before midnight and were not seen leaving until morning."

Iroh's eyebrows climbed toward his long-receded hairline. "That is somewhat late for two young noblewomen to be out alone."

"They could be the credible witnesses you need, sir." She met his eyes. "If they're willing to testify."

"Thank you, Sergeant. You did well." Iroh raised his cup to her, and she clinked hers to it.

"It was my pleasure." She snorted. "Especially after that crazy perfumed bi- Lady Chamberlain Zhao Ni," she corrected herself at Iroh's look of disapproval, "made me her fool."

"The lady does have a certain taste in fragrance." Iroh grimaced in remembrance.

"It's like a massacre of flowers, all howling for vengeance." Cheng wrinkled her nose. "Threw me off my scent. She sang me such a pretty song about how little Deng Sa Ye was a hardened subversive hiding crucial evidence about some plot. It was dumb." She laughed to herself. "I was dumb."

"You told me you wanted to get even, and I believe you have." Iroh cast her a sidelong glance. "Sa Ye is doing well, as you must be happy to know."

"Yes, you told me she didn't lose her baby. Did she say anything about the new urn?"

"She was pleased with it. If you would like to ask her yourself..."

"General, we talked about this." Cheng fingered her cup. "It was a shoddy business all around, and I made bad calls that made it worse. If she wants to see me, and I doubt she will, I'll apologize. But I'm not going to push myself on her, and I'm not choking up over the mistakes I made." She twisted her mouth as though she tasted something bitter. "And I've made a lot of them."

"We do not agree on everything." Iroh took the bottle to pour her a drink. "We never have."

"It's still a pleasure to work with you, sir." She poured him more tea.

They turned at a knock on the door. A young guardsman entered at Iroh's call.

"General. We have secured the target's position."

"Thank you, Hong." Iroh exchanged a glance with Cheng, who raised her cup to him and drained it.

"Let's go." She sauntered to the door. "We'll put the viper-rat away and forget this entire business ever happened." The door closed behind her.

"I doubt we can forget, Sergeant." Iroh slouched in his seat for a moment, crushed by the weight of fatigue. Then he straightened, his eyes alert as he watched and waited in the night.

* * *

Notes: The full name I imagined for Mai means 'apricot blossom' (梅英 mai ying). The phonetic awkwardness is deliberate so she has a legitimate reason to hate it and insist on going by a shortened version.

Rang Han's arrest is detailed in the one-shot "A Night's Work," in the side story collection _Stories from the Shadows._ It's rated M with warnings for language, nudity, and sexual innuendo.

* * *

_Next: Bargains are attempted. Some are struck, not all of them willingly._


	36. Chapter 15: Bargains 1 of 2

Note: The short story "A Night's Work" from the collection _Stories from the Shadows _details Rang Han's arrest, and comes just before this one. It's a bit naughty, but if you're curious about what Rang and Shun (and later Ty Lee) are talking about feel free to peek.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 15: Bargains**

* * *

Previously:

Shun raised an arm to take one of Mai's knives in his wristguard, and gave a grunt when another lodged in his arm. (Stories)

"Will we be back in time for sundown curfew?" asked Yenzi. "I'd hate to break any of your fancy new laws. Speaking of which, we're only two short of breaking the no-congregation rule! (Questions)

"I think," said Ozai with a slow smile, "that we can discuss the matter when my son is by my side again."

Azula bit the inside of her lip until she drew blood. Everything was a signal. (While He Was Sleeping)

* * *

The door opened and Shun pushed Rang Han in ahead of him, making him stumble and fall. Rang struggled to his hands, his nightrobe disheveled from sleep and rough handling.

"You." Zuko rose out of his chair, sparks flying from his clenched hands.

"Your Highness." Rang Han nodded to him. "I hope you will pardon my unsuitable attire, I was rudely interrupted-" he was interrupted again when Shun hauled him to his feet by the front of his robe, threw him into a chair and proceeded to tie him to it.

"Be gentle, will you." Rang looked over his shoulder at his captor. "Where did you get that low-grade rope? It's rubbing me raw."

"You tried to kill me!" Zuko came to stand over Rang.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but you had me kidnapped from my bed." Rang looked up at Zuko from behind strands of tousled hair. "My lord father will be most displeased, to say nothing of your own."

Shun, after checking the rope, came around to the front of Rang Han's chair. "Will they be pleased to learn of the evidence we have against you?"

"That depends on the evidence. For your sake, I hope you have enough to justify this treatment of a member of House Rang."

"Will direct evidence linking you to my assassins be enough?" Zuko crossed his arms. "Kang Zin, former Guard Captain of the Lord of Azhoran and one of the ringleaders, was seen traveling north from the site of the crime with men who were identified as members of your guard." He brought a written statement from the desk and showed it to Rang.

"I also know about a feast you attended the night before the attempt, and how you learned Azula had information on my whereabouts." Zuko flicked through the pile of papers on the desk. "We have a confession from your servant Kwan who stole it from her library for you."

"Some of the bodies were identified, and we are drawing connections to men in your hire," said Shun.

"All this is very nice." Rang Han lifted the fine crescents of his brows. "You have put together an extensive investigation, I will admit. Yet it is the word of guards, servants, and corpses against mine. What happens if I deny everything?"

Metal scraped as Shun drew his dao blade and put it to Rang's neck. "Then we will see how a member of House Rang bleeds."

"Speaking of bleeding." Rang's gaze moved to Shun's right arm. "How is your wound?"

Zuko peered at the torn sleeve, the gape in the fabric giving a glance of blood-spotted wrappings. "I didn't think the drunk could touch you, Shun."

"He did not, my Prince." Shun flushed.

"It was a better man than I who marked your pet killer." Rang started laughing. "A large man. Six of them."

"That it was." Shun pushed his blade forward, forcing Rang to lean back. "Your answer?"

"Do you really mean to sic your hound on me?" Rang looked over the gleam of the sword at Zuko. "You don't need more reason to make the nobility hate you, boy."

"That will be 'Prince Zuko,' 'your Highness,' or 'my Prince.'" Shun moved his wrist a fraction, and Rang paled when the sword's edge bit his skin.

"Let him speak." Zuko touched a hand to Shun's shoulder, making him step away from Rang Han. He addressed himself to Rang. "I don't think anything will win over my enemies at this point. I might as well make them fear me, don't you think?"

"Now you are thinking like a member of your line." Drops of blood beaded from the cut on Rang's neck, bright against the blue-veined milk of his skin. "It was long overdue, I suppose."

"Some might call it justice, with the evidence I have against you." Zuko went to the desk with its sheaves of paper. "I would greatly appreciate your cooperation in this matter."

Rang's eyes took on a shrewd gleam. "Would you be appreciative enough to put in a word to spare my life?"

"Everyone knows you are an irresolute drunk, easily led." Zuko shrugged, though his eyes were angry. "On that point, it would be in your interest to name as many co-conspirators as you can."

"I can do that, your Highness." Rang looked up at him through long lashes. "The only question is, should I include your sister's name or not?"

"Azula had nothing to do with this."

"Didn't she, my Prince? Did your vaunted investigation discover how she had that information in her possession, or why her sycophant was talking loudly about it to men who wish you dead?"

"It doesn't matter!" Zuko swept a hand through the air. "You're going down, and Master Lu will be set free."

"Oh, but it matters a great deal. You see, the case against me will raise uncomfortable questions about your sister's role." Rang looked at the wall behind Zuko as though reading from it. "To avoid those questions I will be sent away for a while to cool my head, and in a few years at most Father will convince everyone what a terrible misunderstanding it all was and bring me back."

"You don't care at all about those lives you destroyed." Zuko's eyes blazed. "I should order you killed."

"You should, but you won't. Leaving aside the quibble about murder, you will be leaving your teacher to rot in his cell."

"You can still do it, sir." Shun looked from his blade to Rang's neck, as though measuring the distance. "We can find some other way to save Master Lu."

"No, he's right. He's agreed to our terms, and it would be murder. And it would make me more enemies." Zuko squeezed his eyes shut. "Take him to the Imperial Investigators."

Shun looked at his face reflected in the dao blade before he put it away, and went behind Rang's chair to untie him. As he did, Zuko turned to the nobleman.

"What I don't understand is—why would you want me dead, Rang Han?"

"I never particularly wanted you dead. Not like the others, who fear you." Rang rubbed his chafed wrists as they came free. "Perhaps I should have wanted it more. It would profit my House, with our drops of royal blood and three strapping sons, if a young girl were to be heir apparent. Even one such as your sister." He arranged his sleeves of his robe over reddened wrists. "But I assure you that your possible death was only a secondary benefit, at least for me."

Zuko gritted his teeth. "And what was your main goal?"

"The goal for me is to end this war." Rang's pale eyes met Zuko's gold. "I knew the Firelord would use the assassination to squeeze concessions from the nobility."

"My father would never use me like that!"

"The refrain of many a noble-born child." Rang clucked his tongue.

"And you've failed, Rang, or you're lying." There was a vindictive gleam in Zuko's eyes. "The loans Zhao and his fellows extended to the crown are only expanding the war, north to Huakang and Beiyang."

"In the short run, yes. But in the long run, when the Firelord keeps pushing and the nobility tire of it? And once the Firelord starts demanding the nobles give up their private troops..." Rang licked his lips. "That is the endgame, one way or the other."

"It's not a game, damn you." Zuko strode to him and grasped the front of his robe. "These are real people, and their lives."

Rang blinked. "But that is the game, your Highness."

Zuko stared a moment before releasing him and staggering back. He gestured to Shun, who cut the ropes with a flourish of blades and dragged Rang out of the chair.

"Remember, Shun." Zuko turned away to a window. "I don't want him dead."

"No, my Prince." Shun pushed Rang Han out ahead of him and closed the door. Zuko covered his eyes with a hand and took a shuddering breath.

* * *

"So is the prince always that uptight, or is tonight a special occasion?" Rang Han asked no one in particular as Shun escorted him down a hallway. Shun said nothing. For minutes their footfalls were the only sound in the hall.

As they approached the barracks and security headquarters to the west of the palace, two uniformed figures emerged from a juncture in the hall and exchanged nods with Shun. "This is the prisoner Rang Han?"

"Yes." Shun gestured to Rang. "The private interview with Prince Zuko went smoothly."

"The Imperial Investigators are ready for him." The taller of the two guards came forward.

Rang took a step toward the guard. "Let us get this charade over with."

"Rang."

Rang Han turned toward Shun, his eyes slitted in amusement.

Shun's blade darted in the torchlight like a fish through water. Rang gave a cry and stumbled back, catching himself against a wall. The blood welled over his hand when he clutched at his face. The shorter of the guards looked between Shun and Rang, his mouth hanging open.

"You-" Rang gasped.

Shun took Rang's wrist and wrenched it away to examine the diagonal cut across his face. "Yes, that'll do. Something to remember tonight by."

"You cut me." The unbloodied half of Rang's face gleamed white as bone in the torchlight.

"Ask your men in their graves what a real cut to the face looks like." Shun released Rang as though casting filth away. "That's just a souvenir."

"Did you see what he did?" Retching at the blood that touched his lips, Rang swayed in place as he turned to the two guards. "He just..."

"Sergeant Nakas, what do we do?" The shorter guardsman turned to his fellow. "He did this right in front of us!"

"Did what? It seemed to me Guardsman Shun used minimal force to restrain a violent suspect." Nakas crossed his arms.

"What? But..."

Nakas jerked his head toward Shun. "Look at the blood on his arm, evidence of a struggle if I ever saw one. As for this fine gentleman..." He looked at Rang, who was trying to stem the flow from his face by pressing the sleeve of his silk robe against the wound. "He can try to raise a stink, but I doubt he'll find sympathetic ears after what he's done. I hope, for his own sake, he'll tell Daddy he was at least man enough to fight and take the hit for it."

After a moment of silence only broken by Rang's seething breaths, Nakas nodded to Hong. "Take him in. Let me do the talking, and we'll be fine."

Hong approached Rang as he might a mad viper-rat and led him away by the arm, supporting the tottering man. Nakas turned to Shun.

"So you're Shun Li? Heard a lot about you." Nakas gave him a nod. "You're smaller than I thought."

"The pleasure is mine." Shun returned the nod, the movement brittle. "I believe I owe you a shirt."

"Consider it repaid." The big man's teeth glinted against his shadowed face. "That was a better show than naked fire-dancing. That pretty waste of skin got my friends killed and messed up Ming's arm, bad."

"Justice comes in many forms."

"A swordsman and a philosopher." Nakas reached down to clap Shun on the injured arm, making him wince. "I should go take charge before the kid Hong wets himself."

Shun stood alone as Nakas' footfalls faded after the other two. He took out a piece of cloth to wipe his blade until it shone, sheathed it, and returned the way he came.

* * *

"I should congratulate you, Zuko. You did well."

Zuko, his bare torso shining with perspiration in the morning sun, paused in the middle of his kata. "For what?"

"Your capture of the traitor Rang Han, of course." Azula followed his movements with her eyes as he resumed. "You took responsibility for your problems and solved them on your own. You even took a little revenge, I hear." She traced a finger across her face. "Impressive."

Zuko, his back to her as he leapt into the air kicking fire, did not see the gesture. "Thanks, I guess." He punched a flaming fist through the air.

"So this wraps up everything for you." Leaning against the doorway to the practice yard, Azula examined her nails. "Your teacher and your other people will be freed, and you'll have avenged your honor." She turned her eyes without moving her head to watch Zuko's reaction.

Zuko advanced, firing bursts of flame from his outstretched palm. Some of them struck the wall inches from Azula, and she flinched away. "Watch it."

"You're the one who intruded on my practice." Zuko made a series of half-turns through the air, creating an arc of fire with every jump. He landed crouched with one leg bent and the other stretched by his side, breathing hard.

"Careful, Zuzu." Blue flame burst from Azula's palm. "I just may have to teach you a lesson."

"Try it." Zuko stood in one smooth move, sliding into stance. "The people who served me gave their life for mine. I won't stop as long as any question remains who killed them." His eyes were bright with suspicion as they met hers; the pupils of her eyes dilated, the black blotting out the gold.

"Oh, have it your way." She shook the flame from her hand and turned her back to him. "Be paranoid if you want. I just wanted to congratulate you."

Zuko narrowed his eyes as he watched her go. "Thanks."

* * *

"Being at home is so majorly depressing these days." Balanced on one foot, Ty Lee raised her other leg until her knee was in her chest. She hugged her thigh as she stretched the leg up so the toes pointed skyward.

Sa Ye clapped, and Ty Lee beamed at her before she bent the other way, leaning forward to raise the leg behind her back.

"Did something happen at home?" Sa Ye watched from her bench as sun-spotted shadows shifted on the grass. Her right temple bore a thin dressing of gauze and bandage, and she favored her right arm as she shifted in place to accommodate the growing bulk of her middle.

"Besides Eldest Sister going to the Colonies? You'd think it couldn't!" Ty Lee sank down to the grass, her legs stretched front and back. She bent up her back leg and pulled it toward her head as she arched her torso back. "Now Third-Eldest Sister Ty Jin is all bent out of shape about something. It's a drag trying to calm her down."

"Bent out of shape." Sa Ye giggled behind her hand as she watched Ty Lee's contortions. "You don't say."

"I do!" Ty Lee rolled onto her back and raised her legs, then her torso to stand on her hands. "With Ty Sian gone and Ty Jin all mopey-pants..." Her braid slid down to touch the grass, and her bangs flipped earthward. "It's like the world's all- all-"

"Topsy-turvy?"

"That's it!" Ty Lee walked toward her on her hands, then flipped herself around and came tumbling down to the ground next to the bench. She leaned back against Sa Ye's legs, laughing.

"Why don't you spend more time with your friends, then?" Sa Ye stroked Ty Lee's hair.

"You're my friend, aren't you?" Ty Lee relaxed into her touch. "It was nice of General Iroh to send you to our house."

"Oh, it's what I wanted." Sa Ye stroked Ty Lee's hair away from her forehead.

Ty Lee squirmed around to look up at Sa Ye without breaking the contact. "Do my hair!"

"I don't have the things to do anything fancy." Sa Ye loosed the tie in Ty Lee's hair and undid her braid. "A topknot, maybe?"

"Like Azula? Sure!"

"What do you and Princess Azula do together?" Sa Ye tousled Ty Lee's loose brown hair, earning a sigh of contentment. "Train? Play?"

"We do a little of everything. Acrobatics training, makeup, study. Or just talk."

"Study... in a library?" Sa Ye's hand jerked as she parted Ty Lee's hair, prompting an "Ow!"

"Sorry about that." Sa Ye rubbed the sore spot on Ty Lee's scalp. "I'm just learning to read, you know. It's hard to imagine a whole library, filled with books. You're so lucky."

"It's Azula's library, not mine." Ty Lee's eyelids drooped as Sa Ye manipulated her hair. "We don't study there a lot, just sometimes."

"So you don't get to see a lot of it?" Sa Ye combed her hands through the brown hair in long strokes. "Not without the Princess, I guess."

"Oh, I saw more than enough that one time." Ty Lee tilted her head back, closing her eyes against the sun. "All night... it makes me sleepy just thinking about it."

"Now that sounds exhausting." Sa Ye tied Ty Lee's hair in a ponytail on top of her head. "Were you studying for a big test?"

"N'really, I just... fell asleep..." Ty Lee's mouth engulfed her face in a yawn. "I knew Mai would stay awake, you know? And Azula didn't get mad." She nestled her head back into Sa Ye's knees. "That's what matters."

"Yes," Sa Ye whispered as she started on the topknot, which Ty Lee crushed by turning her head in sleep. Sa Ye untied the girl's hair and played with it while Ty Lee's head drooped and the light deepened into late afternoon.


	37. Chapter 15: Bargains 2 of 2

"All I'm asking is if you saw something." Zuko grasped the high back of the chair in front of him as he looked across the table at Mai. "That night, in Azula's library."

"I already told you, I don't know what you're talking about." Mai crossed her arms and looked away.

"You're not a good liar, you know that? You get a pouty look, like this." He formed his mouth into a moue. "It's, um..." he ducked his head at her glare, "interesting."

"Interesting." Her lips thinned. "Do you say that to every girl?"

"Not all of them. Just to ones I lik-" he snapped his mouth shut, the word stifling into _hrrrgflg_.

"Gee, how flattering. I'm one of all those girls you like, just when you want something from me."

"I never said there were a lot of them! There's only-" the blush crept over his collar up his ears. "Only-"

"Only two?" Mai placed her hands on her hips. "Or are there others I don't know about?"

"Now I don't know what you're talking about." Zuko crossed his arms over his chest.

"It doesn't matter, it's too stupid. You can hardly talk to a girl, much less..." she grimaced.

He frowned in confusion before he pressed on. "Did Azula ask you to keep watch in her library, on the fifth night of last month?"

"How did you even-" Mai sighed. "Of course. Ty Lee."

"She didn't see anything, but I think you did." Zuko walked around the table in time to his words. "What were her orders, Mai? What did she want you to keep watch for?"

"What are you saying." Mai backed away from his advance. "Are you accusing me of something?"

"No, of course not! I just want to know what Azula told you."

"The investigation is over, Zuko." Mai backed into a wall. "You won. Let it go."

"I haven't won anything!" Zuko struck the table, startling Mai. "The attempt on me just fueled this war, and the man who killed my people will get off with a few years in exile. And I still don't know how Azula had that information on me—or why."

"So this is about making her pay, because someone has to. You're using me against your sister."

"No! That's not me."

"Are you sure?" Mai took a step toward him. "Don't you want to embarrass her in front of your father? Isn't this about gaining favor with him by cutting Azula down?"

"It's about justice." Zuko swept his hand out, flames following along its arc. Mai's eyes grew wide and she ducked, the fire sailing over her head to strike the wall behind her. She straightened as the flames crackled and died, her jaw slack as her eyes met Zuko's.

"Mai!" Zuko ran to her and caught her shoulders. "Mai, I'm so sorry. Are you hurt?"

Mai looked down at him, then stepped back out of arm's length. "I have to go."

"No, wait! I didn't mean to-"

"I'm not mad, exactly. I need to think. And just now..." her lips trembled before she pursed them in a firm line. "Just now I didn't know who you were, Zuko."

Mai slipped out the door; Zuko closed his eyes and leaned against the singed wall.

She came out into the hallway, then stopped to see Shun standing guard just outside the door. Their eyes met, and he watched unmoving as her hand started toward her other sleeve.

Her hands fell to her sides. "He needs you."

Shun inclined his head to her retreating form before he entered the door she had come out of.

"My Prince." His voice was soft as he faced Zuko standing against the wall. "Are you all right?"

"I don't know." Zuko rubbed his face. "Shun, you... wouldn't leave me, right?"

"I will stay as long as you want me to, or until I am dead."

"What if I die first?" Zuko headed for the door.

"You won't. I will make sure to die before you." Shun followed him out to the hallway.

"Um. You must be a lot of fun at parties."

"Perhaps. No one ever invites me."

Zuko chuckled. "Don't ever change, Shun."

"As you command, sir." Their footfalls faded together down the hallway.

* * *

"I hear intriguing things about you of late, Princess."

"Intriguing, Father?" Azula bowed her head low before the dais of the throne room.

"Since the arrest of Lord Rang's youngest, rumors have swirled around you as well—most unseemly accusations against a Princess of the Fire Nation."

"Rumors." The muscles in Azula's cheek twitched. "The powerful inevitably swim in currents of half-truth and insinuation. You know this, Father."

"And the clumsy are mired until they choke." Ozai's voice cut back at her. "If there is one thing I cannot abide, it is clumsiness."

"I am not-" Azula raised herself to gaze up at her father's throne, only to drop back down when the flames rose above his head, concealing him from view.

"It is more than rumor when the aggrieved party, a prince of the blood, refuses to let the matter rest. And I will not," his voice reached her through the roaring flames, "not stand by while another Princess is tainted by treason."

"It was Zuko." Her face twisted as though in terrible pain. "Always Zuko."

The flames lowered and became quieter. "I would not have thought it of the boy, that he would insist the disgraced man is a front and the true culprit is elsewhere. He shows both generosity and cunning, a killer instinct to extinguish his true foe." Ozai clenched a fist, causing the flames around his throne to spark and jump.

"And he seems to swim well through the currents of his own rumors, this son of mine." The Firelord chuckled. "To think he is already a man... Of course, publicly I should reprimand him for indiscretion unbecoming his station."

"Of course." Azula stared at the floor between her hands.

"Perhaps I was hasty, Azula." Ozai sat back in his throne, his flames ebbing low. "I relied too much on you when you are not yet prepared."

The perspiration gleamed on her forehead. "That's not true, Father."

"You are so clever, so deep in your understanding, that sometimes I forget your youth. A year or two at the summer house on Ember Island should be enough for the rumors to cool and Zuko to be appeased. And for you to mature, of course." He smiled down at her. "In the meantime I have your brother by my side."

Azula raised herself on trembling arms. "A year? Two years in exile? After what I did for you- opened the tight fists of those noblemen-"

"Enough. You do not know what you are saying."

"You can't do this to me!" Azula stood in jerky movements. "He's the pawn to be used and discarded, not I."

Ozai clapped for a guard. "The Princess is ill. Have her escorted to her rooms."

Azula followed the guard out without resisting. At the entrance she looked over her shoulder at her father, who did not look back.

"Not I," she said again, though no one heard or cared.

* * *

Mai took one look at Azula's face as she stumbled into her outer apartment, and was at her side in an instant. "What happened?"

"I- need-" Azula caught the doorframe for balance. "Need-"

Mai touched the back of her hand to Azula's forehead. "You have a fever. I'm calling a doctor."

"No!" Azula knocked her hand away, sparks trailing the gesture. Mai retreated from her, eyes wary. "I need General Shu and... and Lieutenant Zhao. Now!" She staggered to a chair and lowered herself into it.

Mai addressed the petrified servant by the door. "You heard the Princess."

As the servant scampered away Mai came to stand on the other side of the table from Azula, her hands in her sleeves.

Azula spared her a glance. "You can go."

"I just need a moment. I have to ask you something."

"Ask, go, I don't care." Azula lowered her sweat-slick face to her arm. "Just clear out before my guests arrive."

"What happened the night you had me keep watch in your library?"

Azula said nothing, and Mai continued. "Did you know your library would be searched? Did you want the attack on Zuko to happen?"

"Careful, Lady Mai Ying." Azula did not raise her head from her arm. "Those are dangerous words."

Mai placed her hands on the table to lean over Azula. "I want to know what you made me an accessory to."

The clatter of armor and booted feet sounded outside the door, and the servant from earlier cleared his throat. "Princess, your guests are here."

"Well." Azula sat up, a composed smile on her face. "That will be my friends. I would love to talk, but matters of state await."

"Azula."

She stood to face Mai. "I told you on the first day you became my companion. You will be richly rewarded for service, but on the condition that you never." Azula pointed a finger in Mai's face. "Never undermine me, betray me. The penalty is as great as the reward."

After a long moment Mai stood back, lowering her gaze.

"Now, could you send in the people outside?" Azula waved an airy hand. "Such a busy day, everyone wants to talk."

"Yes, Princess." Mai bowed and went to open the door. She stepped aside for the military men as they entered, and then slipped out to the hallway. A light smoldered deep in her shadowed eyes, though the rest of her was calm as still water.

* * *

Azula turned to Shu and Zhao, a fevered look in her eyes though she was no longer pale or sweating. Her every movement blazed with decisive energy as she turned to the men.

"I apologize for calling you on such short notice, gentlemen. I had a small suggestion for the assault plans that you, General, will present at the upcoming war meeting."

A smile spread across her face, and the men suppressed a shudder at the sight of it. "I was hoping to hear your professional opinions."

* * *

"I can't seem to stop it." Zuko sat before the bars of Master Lu's cell, a lamp on the writing desk scattering light in the gloom and books piled high in a corner. "I've tried talking to the nobility, and Father himself, and nothing works."

"You are not yet in a position to influence war policy." Master Lu looked sympathetic. "In time, perhaps. But not yet."

"The war seems to have a life of its own. If only Father would see..."

"I don't believe the Firelord needs your help seeing anything," Lu's voice was sharp. Zuko looked at him, taken aback. "Forgive me, your Highness. But it is dangerous thinking to believe you can enlighten a monarch."

"You're right. It's just..." Zuko trailed off, his thoughts bounding from place to place. "There's a war meeting coming up in days. Do you think I should attend?"

"Your Highness!" Lu grasped the bars of his cell, straining to reach Zuko. "How many times must I warn you?"

"But I need to show Father that I'm not trying to subvert him!" Zuko shrank back. "To do that I should be a part of the process."

Lu opened his mouth to answer, closed it, and rubbed his temples. "If I were out of this cell I would physically restrain you, if I had to."

"It should be any day now. The Warden agrees you should be free, but he keeps giving me excuses about administration and formality."

"It is good of you to come keep me company." Master Lu inclined his head. "Thank you. Just be careful, your Highness. And be sure to speak to your uncle before you make any major decisions. Can you do that for me?"

Zuko didn't meet his eyes. "Of course."

* * *

"You can't stop it, Miss Tien." Inspector Shang regarded her across the interrogation room table. "Your parents will be arrested anyway."

Yenzi brought a hand to her mouth and gasped out a breath into her palm. "Why? We cooperated. I've told you everything I know, and I know they did, too."

"Yes, unfortunately we never did establish how the assassins found Prince Zuko. And the inconsistencies in your stories-"

"-are flaming crap." Yenzi's eyes shone out of the shadows that encircled them. "You and your men manufactured them, and you know it. Why don't you tell me what your real problem is, and I'll see if I can help."

"Usually they're crying at this point." Shang beamed at her with genuine warmth. "You're a smart girl, aren't you?"

"For all the good it's done me. Now tell me what's going on."

"Well Miss, you tell me. Ever since the assassination attempt we've seen defacement of public decrees, protests in front of city hall. Milli-skunk bomb at the city barracks." They cringed together at the memory. "The city is on the brink of boiling over."

"Too bad you got them angry with your curfews and anti-assembly laws." Yenzi smirked. "Ever thought of backing down?"

"Think? You give government too much credit. We react, as humans will. Usually badly."

"That's... pretty honest. Too bad it's coming from a man who's threatening to put my parents away."

"They'll be set free eventually. I know they didn't do anything." Shang leaned in with his elbows on the table. "But we have identified them as one of the leading families in this community, and placing them out of action will have a sobering effect on others."

"Or it'll make everyone angrier." Yenzi's fist clenched on the table. "You were just talking about reacting, and badly?"

"Yes, yes, we're all human here. I believe we have a better plan, though." He tapped his temple with a finger. "Your government using its head, for once."

"Do I even want to know?"

"It's simple, really." Shang rose and clasped his hands behind his back, as though starting a lecture. "In every society, youth are the driving force behind social change and large-scale unrest. You can look up treatises about it if you like—the more young people in a population, the more likely social upheaval."

"Your point?"

"We'll turn their energy to more productive uses. How about toward serving their country? You young people stay safely out of trouble while this blows over, get better job opportunities, the city grows quiet and everyone is happy."

Yenzi looked at him as though he had morphed into a boarcupine before her eyes. After a moment she managed: "The military. You're talking about sending us to the military. You're talking about sending _me_ to the military."

"See, I told all my colleagues you're a quick one. The young men we can draft, but for you it's simplest if you volunteer." He drew a scroll from his sleeve and unrolled it to show her the words 'enlistment application' across the top. "Just fill out and sign."

"And if I do this, you won't touch Mom or Dad." Yenzi stared at the scroll in Shang's hands. "But you can just go back on the deal. Why would I do this?"

"Because, my dear Miss Tien, as long as you are a member of our great armed forces we have no reason to be interested in your parents."

"As long as I'm a hostage, you mean."

"And more importantly," he went on as though she had not spoken, "if you don't do this you will never stop wondering. Once they are in the system, your parents could spend months or years trying to get their lives back—what do you think will happen to your family's store?"

Yenzi swallowed, watching as Shang smoothed the application out on the table before her.

"And where would your brother go? Will you give up school to raise him on your own? All the time a part of you will always wonder, 'Could I have prevented-' "

"All right! I'll do it." Yenzi slapped her hand down on top of the application with a force that rattled the table. "Give me something to write with before I change my mind."

Before she had finished the sentence Shang drew a slender brush from his sleeve, pulling the cap off the bristles as he did. He opened the bottle of pre-ground ink on the desk, filling the air with its sticky smell.

Yenzi took the brush from him and started filling in the application, Shang pointing out fields and giving her directions.

"Name and age... occupation, don't need that... check 'firebending: yes'... preferred service, we'll take care of that one..."

"But I'm forge-trained." Yenzi looked up from the application. "Can't I be in the Royal Engineer Corps?"

"Fill it in however you like." Shang's look was indulgent, almost affectionate.

Yenzi checked "engineering" and "repairs," then further down the list, "security." She wrote her name across the bottom and put down the brush.

"If Mom and Dad do go to prison, maybe I can be their jailer." She chuckled to herself, a bitter sound.

Shang thanked her for her cooperation and assured her the Imperial Investigators would not call on her again. Yenzi rose and left the interrogation room, shaking her head in disbelief.

* * *

_Next: A prince speaks out of turn, and promotions are made._


	38. Chapter 16: Opinions

Notes: Many apologies for the late update! I finally found some free time and presence of mind today, and will post more once I'm settled in after the wedding. Also I need something to get my mind off the jitters.

The lines in the war chamber scenes are from Episode 1.12, "The Storm," either spoken directly or paraphrased in that episode.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 16: Opinions**

* * *

"Zuko, you cannot openly oppose the war. It is too dangerous."

"Who are you to decide what I can or can't do? Do I look like lazy fat man like you, wasting my days on Pai Sho and tea?" (Questions)

"A year or two at the summer house on Ember Island should be enough for the rumors to cool. In the meantime I have your brother by my side." Ozai smiled down at Azula. (Bargains)

"I know how loyal you are, Prince Zuko." Ozai bent forward to place a hand on Zuko's shoulder. "Make certain that others know it as well." (Confrontations)

* * *

The tiles were in place. As he walked down the hall he could see where the harmonies lined up and where the potential for disruptions lay. He had lined up the generals' support against the invasion of Huakang and Beiyang, perhaps just enough to press the weight of military opinion against the plan. Kai he already had. Xing he had brought over. Lak he could keep silent with what he knew about the grain stores at Sewan Garrison. As for Shu-

"Let me in."

Iroh's gaze went to the entrance to the war chamber at the end of the hall. Surely it could not be—yet there he was in full armor at the entrance to the war chamber, facing off against the guards who barred his way.

"Prince Zuko." Iroh did not know how he had reached his nephew. He drew Zuko away by the shoulders, half wishing he could give the boy a good shake. "What's wrong?"

His mind raced as Zuko explained that he wanted to attend the war meeting. Uninvited, naturally. Iroh felt a headache coming on. He should send Zuko away: halting the operation on Huakang and Beiyang was a delicate enough operation without the boy there to arouse Ozai's suspicions. But would Zuko listen? _Do I look like lazy fat man like you?_

Iroh earned a little time drawing Zuko away from the door and laughing about how dreadfully boring these meetings were, which was true. On most days they were simple formalities, with the Firelord giving advance approval of the agenda and the plan. Except today, when Iroh had made the moves and lined up the pieces to change the script.

No, today's meeting would not be boring. Not on this day of all days, when Zuko should have stayed away so Iroh could bear the risk of failure alone.

Zuko looked into his eyes. "If I'm going to rule this nation one day, don't you think I should start learning as much as I can?"

Iroh heard the meaning beneath the surface words. _If I'm going to rule..._ So it came to this. Would he deny Zuko's place in the affairs of the state he would rule?

He had to make a decision, and now. He could order Zuko back to his rooms, but Zuko might well try to force his way in and earn Ozai's ire. If the boy could barge into his father's throne room, why not the war chamber? Better he be there on invitation, so that any responsibility for his presence fell on Iroh.

"Very well." As he made Zuko promise not to speak, Iroh reflected that this turn of events might be a blessing in disguise. As long as Zuko stayed silent and deferential, and he had no reason not to be, Ozai might even respect his son the better for his initiative.

"Thank you, Uncle!" Zuko bowed, smiling. Iroh felt the smile reflected on his own face as he put an arm around Zuko's shoulders, so much higher from the ground and broader than before, and walked to the entrance of the war chamber with his nephew by his side.

As he parted the emblazoned drapes Iroh's thoughts went to Azula, and how cruel this could be to her. Already beleaguered with the shadow of suspicion on her, she would no doubt be sent away from court if Zuko further gained his father's favor. Things could go even worse for her if her companion Mai agreed to divulge incriminating information, as Iroh hoped.

Yet exile was light enough punishment compared to Azula's crime, and better in the long run. A few seasons away from court might see her stop dressing like a boy and start turning to less brutal pursuits. It would be a happier turn for everyone, most of all for Azula herself.

* * *

As General Shu gave his presentation Iroh met, in fleeting glimpses, the eyes of the generals he knew were with him. Ideally the others would confront Shu and challenge the invasion plan, though he would step up to speak himself if he must.

"The Earth Kingdom defenses are concentrated here." Shu pointed out the strongholds along the coastline between Huakang and Beiyang defended by their strongest battalions. Iroh had faced one of those, the Stone Fists, when they came south to reinforce Ba Sing Se's defenses. Not having to repeat the experience was one reason to be glad of his retirement. If this invasion plan went through, the units Shu chose and Ozai approved to break through their defenses would not be so lucky.

"So I am recommending the Forty-first Division." Shu slid a flame marker forward.

Iroh had a split second of disorientation where he did not remember there being a Forty-first, when General Kai spoke up. "But the Forty-first is entirely new recruits!" Iroh then remembered the new division that was being put together from the funds that Lord Zhao and others had so generously provided to the crown.

General Kai asked the the reasonable man's question: How did Shu expect barely-trained conscripts to defeat perhaps the deadliest group of earthbenders since the once-famed Eight Pillars? Somehow, Iroh felt the tension growing between his shoulderblades as he listened; he had to keep himself from shouting at Kai to stop. He felt he struggled with the shadows that filled the room and writhed away from his grasp. He looked at Ozai out of the corner of an eye, a shadow himself behind his screen of flame.

Shu's answer came like the fall of an ax, that he did not expect the raw recruits of the Forty-first to work miracles. He went on to outline his plan to use the division as bait, and everything in Iroh, general and prince, screamed at the wrongness of it. Why was Shu focusing entirely on the purported distraction, as though the body of the plan did not even matter? Why did he use none of the euphemisms proper for this august company, 'tactical diversion' or 'unavoidable sacrifice' or any of the rest?

Too late, Iroh remembered the spark of surprise followed by almost predatory interest in Shu's eyes when Zuko had entered the room— General Shu with his many friends, including his protege Lieutenant Zhao, Lord Zhao's son who was so close to Azula. The shadows leapt from their corners and pounced.

Iroh sensed Zuko move next to him. He saw once again Zuko's haunted eyes in the wake of the deaths and destruction he had been forced to endure. Zuko, who had refused to let other children be the bait to save his life. Zuko, who had watched his friend die defending him. Zuko, who lashed out at his pain with anger just like-

_-so cold, his hands his face like bitter winter. That impossible frontal charge at the enemy as though his father would not know this way. What possessed the father to dream that berating the son would snap him out of the night terrors and bring the life back to his eyes, make a man out of him and now it was too late my Lu Ten forgive me_

Through a darkness crowded with nightmares he reached for Zuko and took hold of an arm before the boy could rise. _Don't leave me, son._ But Zuko shook him off so brusquely that Iroh had to catch himself from falling flat on his back, stumbling like the blind fool he was who never saw the trap in his path.

No, not his path.

Zuko's.

"You can't sacrifice an entire division like that!" Zuko sprang to his feet, his voice breaking through the order of the chamber. "Those soldiers love and defend our Nation. How can you betray them?"

In the silence that followed Iroh watched the military leaders as their hearts turned from Zuko, even those who agreed with him in opposing the invasion plan. Who was this boy to tell them how to conduct their war, where sacrifices were inevitable?

From there it was but a step to opposing the war itself.

The shadows withdrew to become denser darkness in the corners as roaring light lit the room. Iroh felt the heat on his back and breathed the stink of burning oil, Ozai's suspicion of his own son come to its full hellish bloom.

"Prince Zuko." Ozai did not raise his voice, nor did he have to. The flames that reached toward the ceiling and burned the breath away were enough. "We have tolerated your uninvited presence in this war meeting, for a desire to learn is a commendable thing in a prince."

"Father, you heard what-"

"Silence!" Zuko froze. "You have repaid our indulgence with utter disregard for the proceedings in this room and the gravity of our business here. You have disrespected the authority of your Firelord."

"No, sir. It is General Shu who disrespected your authority, by suggesting the callous slaughter of your own subjects." Zuko pointed at the General, whose face in the firelight was the color of curdled milk.

"All I have done in my six decades of service was for the glory of our Nation." Shu formed his hands into the flame salute and bowed. "I will not permit any man to challenge that, much less a child who has not learned to conduct himself as his station demands."

"Well, Prince, General." Ozai settled into his seat as though to watch an oxboar-baiting. "If neither of you will yield in this matter, you are aware there is only one way to resolve it."

The silence pressed in, punctuated by the crackle of Ozai's flames. Zuko turned to face General Shu. "I'm not afraid."

_Yet you should be._ Iroh closed his eyes, each pound of his heart a new strike of pain. His nephew did not know enough to be afraid, and so it fell to Iroh to fear for him every waking hour and in every dream he woke from gasping.

"Tomorrow at noon, then." Ozai's tone was final. "At the Arena of Justice. Let the man with the fire of his cause prevail."

_Forgive me, _Iroh entreated the both of them, the boys he could not save from the shadows of their own minds. _I brought you to this. _He bowed his head, Azula's laughter ringing in his ears.

* * *

"All we are saying, Princess, is that-"

"-this is a matter you may wish to consider-"

"I don't need to consider anything." Azula turned from the cobalt dusk outside her window to Li and Lo, eyes flashing. "I am not touching this filth."

"If the rumor is true..."

"It is not." Azula shuddered as though a spider-snake crawled up her back. "Do you think I've been idle? The peasant was with whelp before Zuko ever heard of Tamalan."

"No doubt you are right, Princess. However, the important thing is not whether Prince Zuko has sired an illegitimate child-"

"-but that he is perceived as having done so. This may work to your advantage."

Azula's smile was sharp. "It won't. Father was _pleased_ that Zuko is 'a man' now. Can you imagine what would happen if the merest whiff of such a rumor existed about me?"

Lo recoiled while Li hissed, "Your Highness! Lower your voice!"

"Thank you kindly, you just proved my point. Now leave me."

"Princess-"

Azula's small, even teeth gleamed in the waning light. "How dare you suggest I go near this? Do you think I cannot douse Zuko's flame—Zuko's!—without dealing in foul lies?"

"Of course not, Princess." Li and Lo exchanged a sidelong glance and started retreating at the same time.

Heavy booted feet, not quite running but obviously hurried, approached down the hall and stopped outside the door. The glimmers of Azula's eyes swung toward the sound, and the twins bowed in a synchronized motion.

"We will take our leave of you, Princess."

Azula nodded, her eyes fixed on the door. She watched unmoving as a solid figure in armor brushed past the old women on his way in. She did not wait for Zhao to finish bowing before she spoke.

"Lieutenant. What news from the war chamber?"

Zhao's eyes were dazed even as a grin spread over his face, as though he had gained a windfall such as he had never imagined.

"I'm afraid you won't believe me, your Highness."

* * *

The cheers rose as he climbed the boarding ramp onto the deck. It was hard to keep the smile off his face, though he knew grinning like an idiot did not befit the fine sash he wore, its touch like a caress whenever it brushed his neck.

They started up the applause as he walked among them, the sound washing over him like a wave. He looked and nodded to them as he passed, the young men wearing the kind of face-splitting grin he was trying to repress, the non-coms with their looks of approval. The officers nodded and saluted, and if some of them were more polite than pleased he could live with that.

"Sir." The new first mate saluted, back straight and a light in his eyes. "The _Firebrand _is yours, Captain Ji."

A roar arose at those words, prompting seabirds to take off from their perches around the docks and fly squawking into the sunset-ruddy sky. Ji did not recall such exultation when the previous captains came on board, even though the last captain and now Commander Chan had been more popular than most.

_It's because I'm one of their own._ He waved the men quiet, or tried to. _Not some capital type Central Command dropped in their laps._

Lieutenant Wu, the Chief of Security, couldn't quite keep the dourness from his face as he saluted with the other section chiefs. Wu was another man who was more polite than pleased, but Ji knew him to be a soldier to the bone: He would go to his death on his captain's order, with that disapproving frown still on his face.

When the cheers died down to the occasional whoop, Ji raised his voice above the sea-murmurs and the call of gullbatrosses_._ "Is my ship ready to sail, Lieutenant Mo?" Someone whistled at that, but it died down with a squeak when Ji frowned in its direction. Celebration was well and good, but he refused to be whistled at.

"Ready and willing, sir!" Mo stood even straighter if that was possible. "All's clear and awaiting your orders."

Ji swept his gaze over the gathered faces, shadowy in the darkening light. "And the men?"

"Present and accounted for, sir!"

"And are they ready to sail my ship?"

"Aye, Captain!" The shout came in unison, as if from one giant throat.

Ji started walking along the circle of men two and three deep, looking at each face in turn as he passed. "You've known me, some of you a decade, more. And I know you.

"I'm not good with speeches and I'm not going to try. Nothing changes. We go out there every day and do our jobs as Fire Nation sailors. You'll do me proud, just like you always did, and I'll do right by you." He lowered his voice, and they leaned in as though pulled. "We go into this. Together."

They broke out in whoops and hollers again, but quieted down when he raised a hand.

"His Majesty's Navy wants us at Jinsei's Watch in two days, so that is where we will go." Ji nodded at the murmur that went through his men. "Yes, we return to Fire Nation waters after two long years. Set a course for home."

They started shuffling off, too slow for his liking.

"What're you lounging around for, you lards? Move!" His shout rose over the commotion of the men running to their posts. "There's no such thing as a lazy man on my ship!"

"'Cause if you are, I reckon he's kickin' your sorry ass right overboard." Ji snorted as he turned in the direction of those drawling words. "It's about damned time, sir!" the marine Zanzen called over his shoulder as he sped toward the stern.

"Watch your mouth, Corporal." Ji stood back a moment watching his ship come to life, torches lighting, engines humming, the chimney pouring smoke across the stars.

"We're going home." He stood at the prow inside the pulse of his ship, waiting to feel the wind on his face as they started west.

* * *

_Next: Three games are lost—and won—before they are played._


	39. Chapter 17: Games 1 of 2

Notes: 1. I made heavy revisions to Mai's scene after Amy Raine's critique, so if it's any good I have her to thank for it.

2. The third and so far last draft of Mai's scene was influenced by Alice Miller's _The Drama of the Gifted Child. _Mai's characterization owes much to Loopy777's stories, as always, and I read the excellent _Saving Face_ by meltinglacier between drafts which may have been another influence. Also, Loopy's review helped me realize I wasn't making things clear enough, so I gave it yet another revision. Thanks, Loopy!

3. The name I gave The Era of Avatar Aang is Ji Lian (severed continuity). According to the fandom sites I saw it's Yang Wu/Ri Wu, but I have doubts about that. In fact I doubt we ever saw Avatar era names in the show. For more on that see my LJ.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 17: Games**

* * *

Previously:

Azula pointed a finger in Mai's face. "Never undermine me, betray me. The penalty is as great as the reward." (Bargains)

Yenzi stared at Inspector Shang. "The military. You're talking about sending me to the military." (Bargains)

Shun crossed his arms. "He is my lord and liege, the first I chose of my own will." (Confrontations)

"So it was the bumpkin's death that set him off," said Azula. (Stories)

* * *

Please, my lady." General Shu was trying to keep his demeanor of military stoicism, but every few moments his hands met before his chest as though he were pleading. "This is a serious matter."

Azula, for her part, bent over the table, her face contorting as she held in her mirth. "He actuallycame to the war meeting! On this day- of all days- he barged into a council of war." She burst out in sharp peals of laughter and took deep breaths to calm herself. "Uninvited."

"As I have told you many times already, Princess, and no doubt others have as well."

"Oh, I'm sorry, General." Azula dabbed tears away with her fingertips. "I find it incredible no matter how many times I hear it. How could anything be so fortuitous, so well-timed, so... perfect?"

"I am glad this makes you so happy." The general pursed his lips. "You said your brother would be compelled to oppose the sacrifice of the Forty-First, thus overreaching himself."

"But then he raised the heat even higher and made an appearance." Azula suppressed a giggle behind her hand. "He was even kind enough to make an unseemly outburst. Your improvisation was a flash of genius, General."

"Thank you." Shu crossed his arms. "But it may have worked too well. Now it falls to me to fight the Agni Kai tomorrow."

"A task I would happily take off your hands, if only I could. Zuko could use the humiliation. Humility."

"A duel against a thirteen-year-old prince." General Shu started pacing across the floor. "All he needs to do is put up a fight, and he will have lost nothing and only gained respect."

"Respect that he will gain at your expense." Azula's eyes followed him. "Win or lose, you will look a fool for struggling with a young and inexperienced opponent."

"And he will put up a fight, Princess. He has fought against adults before, at Tamalan and afterward."

"Too bad you can't just concede." She gave him a round-eyed look.

Shu's answer was a shudder that convulsed through his armored shoulders. He returned to the table to sit down across from her, tiredness carved across his features.

"It is not for my sake that I fear dishonor, your Highness. You know about the rabble who call him the Dragon Prince and even the Avatar." He snorted, and Azula smirked. "Regions friendly to him, especially Haishan where the attack took place, are growing restive. They talk of taxes, the war itself..."

"When did they lack excuses to stir discontent?" She folded her hands on the table, prim as a cat.

"Those same malcontents will take heart from this. Whether he wins or loses, the story of the Agni Kai will only increase instability." The general drew himself up to sit up straight. "Instability we cannot afford in wartime."

"You're right. He has already challenged the Firelord's authority, and others will follow his lead. My brother is..." her voice grew quiet, "a danger to the Fire Nation."

"Princess?"

"Your problem, General, is that you are in a game you cannot win. Zuko, bless his blundering ways, put you in this position without even knowing it. Oh yes." She laughed at the scowl on Shu's face. "I know how it hurts to be bested by such a clumsy opponent.

"But the setback does not have to be permanent. As a strategist you should know this better than anyone. The key is to make the game unwinnable for the opponent." She licked her lips.

"I do not follow, your Highness."

"The best games are won before they are played, don't you think?" Azula's eyes gleamed as she stood. "You did well, General. In return for your service I hope I can resolve your little dilemma."

"But how-"

"I make no promises. In the meantime, await my message."

Shu rose and bowed low as Azula left the room. He straightened, the look on his face that of a man looking at a puzzle he could not make sense of.

* * *

"Do you get a whiff of sense in this, Shun?" Zuko held the notice at arm's length in front of himself, then flipped it upside down as if that would help. "Why are they saying they haven't released Master Lu yet?"

"Why ask me, your Highness?" Behind him, Shun peered over Zuko's shoulder at the upside-down official notice, which Zuko was now turning sideways.

"Because it's stupid!" Zuko tossed the notice onto his desk in disgust. "Rang Han confessed to the palace plot. Everyone can see how easy it was for the conspirators to learn where as was if Master Lu told the truth. Shouldn't it be obvious he was protecting me?"

"Yes, it should." Shun lowered his eyes.

"I'm going to have to go yell at the Warden again." Zuko looked out at the westering sun outside his window. "But not today. I need to train for the Agni Kai." He headed for the door.

"About that, sir." Shun took half a step to impose himself between Zuko and the door.

"What is it?"

"Forgive me. I... know this is beyond my station. But without Master Lu here I consider it my duty to say this."

Zuko crossed his arms over his chest, waiting.

"My Prince, I beg you not to go through with the Agni Kai. It is not too late. Beg forgiveness of your royal father and apologize to General Shu."

The silence stretched thin. "Prince Zuk-"

"Did my uncle ask you to talk to me? I already told him I wouldn't back down."

"He did not, but I agree with him. Master Lu would tell you the same."

"You know what happened at the meeting, and the plan General Shu proposed."

"I know."

"Do you agree with it?"

Shun opened his mouth, closed it. He jerked his head from side to side.

"So why do you want me to pull out of the duel, Shun?" Zuko tilted his head. "I've been trying for weeks to stop the invasion. This is the only way I can see to stop it, or at least the slaughter of the Forty-First Division."

"The Forty-First is already lost." Shun's voice scraped like sandpaper. "But you can save yourself, my Prince."

"I won't give up on them without a fight." Zuko's eyebrows drew down in a scowl before they rose toward his hairline. "And what do you mean? Save myself from what?"

"I know- I feel..." Shun wet his lips. "I believe this is a trap set for you."

"What?" Zuko took a step forward. "Why do you say that?"

"Because I know her! As you should, if you'd paid any attention at all."

"Shun." There was a cold look in Zuko's eyes. "Explain yourself."

Shun looked to the left and right, as though looking for an escape. He closed his eyes, the tension leaving his shoulders.

"Very well," he said. "May we speak alone, my Prince?"

Zuko turned to the other guard by the wall. "Leave us. Don't let anyone enter until I say so." A corner of his lips twitched. "Or until I start screaming for help."

"Here." Shun started to unbuckle his sword belt to give to the guard, but Zuko raised a hand to stop him.

"You're my guardsman, Shun." His smile was sharp. "What will you do without your sword?"

Zuko dismissed the guard with a gesture. Shun stood still for a moment after the door closed, staring into air.

"So." Zuko looked up at Shun, a challenge in his eyes. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Shun fell to his knees before Zuko. "The truth."

* * *

_Dear General Iroh,_

_I hope you will understand that this is not an easy letter to write. Princess Azula has been a friend and companion for many years_

Ugh, what squishy slag. Mai crumpled the beginning of the letter in her hand and touched it to the candle at her side, where it crinkled and turned black. She couldn't ramble on and on to Zuko's uncle like that.

She flattened a fresh sheet of paper on the desk and lifted her turtleduckling water sprinkler to wet the inkwell. Mai wrinkled her nose at the pink porcelain bird; she hadn't ruled out a convenient accident for Ty Lee's gift, but right now she needed it. The blankness of the paper seemed to swallow up her desk as she ground her inkstick against the moistened well.

She coated her brush in fresh ink, held her sleeve away from the surface of the paper—her knives clinked just now, she'd have to move more carefully—and started writing again.

_Dear Sir,_

_I am still not entirely certain what I saw the night before the assassination attempt on your nephew, and I am deeply reluctant to make accusations against a princess of the blood without proof. All I can say for certain is what I saw and heard, but I cannot be sure what these things mean. I hope they do not mean anyth_

Mai sighed and tore the draft in half, the halves into fourths, and fed the pieces to her candle where they flaked away to join the growing pile of ashes on her desk. She swept the lot off with the damp towel she kept at hand.

She started again.

_General Iroh,_

_Early last month, on the fifth night of the first moon of Fire, Princess Azula commanded me to keep watch all night in her personal library while she was away praying at the Temple of Agni. I was ordered only to watch and not to intervene in any way, nor make my presence known..._

Her brush made its way down the paper and then line after line to the left. Mai felt a warm glow at how evenly the letters marched down their rows, the back of her hand remembering the smack of the rod for the smallest mistake.

When she had filled the paper Mai read the letter over and signed her name at the end. She sat still, waiting for—what? Maybe she wanted someone to tell her what to do, Mother, Azula, anyone.

Or maybe it was General Iroh with his kind, sad eyes. _If you can find it in your heart to speak to me, Mai..._

At the memory she snatched up the letter and stared at the candle flame, its brightness leaving a spot in her sight. The wisp of paper in her hand was fragile as truth, and so easy to destroy.

_Did you hear what happened at the war chamber today? _It was like the servants were whispering in the hallway all over again. _Did you hear what Prince Zuko did? The court's in an uproar!_

Carriage wheels clattered on the pavement outside her window. That would be Father, probably full of exciting news about how Prince Zuko was going to fight a fire-duel against a general who had been burning things up for a hundred years longer than Zuko had been alive. Wasn't it _grand?_

Except maybe it didn't have to be that way. If the Firelord learned of what Azula did, maybe he would send Azula away and Zuko would be back in his father's good light.

But Azula was her friend, or at least "friend." What was she doing, even thinking of talking to General Iroh? _Never undermine me, betray me._

Her head hurt. She considered hiding in bed with the covers over her head and refusing to come out until the world made sense again.

"Mai!" called Mother's voice. "Come greet your father!"

With one last glance at the candle, Mai put the letter flat on her desk and folded it in straight lines, careful to make the creases even. Stupid Zuko and his stupid hero complex. Stupid Azula and her stupid plans. Burn them and their whole stupid family, why couldn't they leave her out of this?

"Mai!"

"Coming, Mother." She slipped the letter into her sleeve and rose. Who could she trust it to, should she go see the General herself?

Out in the sitting room she bowed to her father, her hands tucked in her sleeves and her thoughts tucked behind her face.

"Mai." Father's court robes swept over the floor as he approached. "Sit down, I have wonderful news."

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "We know about the war meeting, Father. Everybody knows."

"War meeting?" Her father frowned as if trying to remember. "No no, I'm not here to discuss that unpleasantness."

"Mai, sit down." Mother materialized at her elbow and pulled her into the chair beside her. Mai shrugged and let her. If it wasn't the war meeting that had Father all stoked up, what was it?

"My lady, dear daughter." Father's chest seemed in danger of bursting like a puffed-up badger-frog's. "His Majesty has honored me by appointing me to the position of lieutenant governor at Shang Ru."

Mother gasped, her hands going to her mouth. Mai realized her own mouth was hanging open and closed it.

"Oh, my lord." Mother stood and stumbled a step toward Father. "It is a great honor, but... it's so far away! How soon is the move?"

"We must start preparing right away." Father pulled her into his arms. Mai knew they had to be really excited, or they'd never be like this in front of her. "I never thought it could happen. It's something I can pass on down the generations if I serve well, and I will..."

They looked at each other with a sadness that had settled like old dust. "It can happen yet, my lord. I know I can give you a son to carry on all that you build."

"I fear for you. You have suffered as no mother should."

_Give your little sister a hug, Mai. Tell her you love her and you'll play forever in the Summerlands. _The baby's fingers, tiny and cold as the bumps on a sea cucumber, had seemed to count out all the dead little brothers and sisters.

"I'm not afraid." Mother smiled. _Please stop crying, dear. Mother needs her eldest to be strong._ Mai wasn't Mother's eldest, she was the only one. She couldn't say that, though, and she couldn't cry.

"Mai, say something! What do you think?" Mother turned to her,

"Does it matter?" _Why do you want a Aren't I good enough for You know I try and try The doctor said it's not safe for you to Please I don't want to lose y _"What do you care what I think?"

Father started to speak, but Mother faced her with a force that made her robes swirl.

"Is that what you say when your father has earned the Firelord's favor, young lady? Is it beyond your ability to be happy for him?"

How could she know the right thing to say or feel? Mother hadn't told her. Mai crossed her arms and looked away. She felt hot with shame, but her fingers felt like ice.

"Now now, dear." Father's smile was too tight on his face as he came up to put his hands on Mother's shoulders. "I would not say I earned it entirely by myself. I never dreamed Lord Zhao would be such a vocal proponent for me, for instance."

"Lord Zhao of Aojing?" Mother looked up at him, changing focus, and both Mai and her father relaxed.

"None other, my dear. Why, his son Lieutenant Zhao, soon Captain, will be the one to escort us to Shang Ru!"

Mai went still. The memory of the Lieutenant kneeling before Azula in the garden stung with the heat of little flames on her arm. He was the one taking her family across the sea? What happened to them if she exposed Azula? What about her father's new position if she angered Zhao and his father? _Is it beyond your ability to be happy for him?_

"I'll admit, Mai." Father's hand patted Mai's shoulder, bringing her back from her thoughts with a start. "I feel safer knowing we will be protected by His Majesty's own navy."

She made herself breathe again. Protected. She was protected. She was safe and she was loved as long as she didn't step out of line. And what else could she do except stay inside the line, even if it meant she had no room to move?

Her hands were steady now. She knew what to say and what to do, and even what to feel: Nothing. It was everything anyone required of her, and she had always been a dutiful girl.

"I apologize for my behavior, Mother." Mai bowed from the waist. "And congratulations, Father. I'm so happy for you. Can I go to my room before dinner?"

"Of course, dear." Mother's face was gentle. Mai felt like throwing her arms around her to soak in the warm mother-scent, but pulled herself away.

As she walked toward her room Mai reached into her sleeve to close her fist around her letter to General Iroh, crushing it into a tight ball.

Back in her room she took out the wad of paper and put it to the candle flame. She watched the flames crawl over the creases like greedy firebugs, proud of the fact that no expression flickered across her face to betray her thoughts.


	40. Chapter 17: Games 2 of 2

"I don't understand, Yenzi."

A sick feeling sank into Yenzi's stomach when she saw the seal on the letter her mother held up. It had to be her who picked up the mail, of all people.

"I can't believe you didn't tell us." Mom sounded so tired, and somehow that was worse than anger.

"It's my decision." Yenzi glared down at the kitchen table, her heart pounding. "I'm an adult and-"

"And nothing. You're seventeen, and live under our roof." Mom slapped the letter down on the table. She _never_ did that. "So explain why the War Ministry wants you to report to Ching An so you can be assigned your post."

"I volunteered, isn't it obvious?" Yenzi tried to shrug, but it was like she had anvils over her shoulders. There were dark shadows under Mom's eyes, with everything that happened and Lijin and the store and the city. And now this. "I'm going to serve my country, Mom, you should be proud."

The silence squeezed Yenzi's heart, and she tried to swallow past the tightness. Mom more collapsed into the chair than sat, her eyes staring into space.

"Mom." Her dumb voice was shaking. She should go to her, put her arms around her and tell her everything. Everything would be all right in that embrace, surrounded by the smells of paper and iron.

"I just never thought... I had no idea you wanted this. If I'd known, I would have made sure you had the right training. Prepared you better."

"You're saying you shouldn't have taught me forge-bending?" Yenzi's voice rose to a squeak. Anger was better than tears. "You think you wasted your time?"

"Yenzi." Mom looked at her wide-eyed. "Of course not. I thought it was what you wanted."

_What did I ever want, except to be you?_ "I do- I did. I really did, it's just..." Why was she stammering like an idiot? Mom was getting suspicious.

"Honey, did someone talk to you about this?" Mom's eyes gleamed like steel as she stood. "Did someone say you had to join? Inspector Shang?"

"No!" Yenzi pushed her chair back from the table. Oh, real smooth. Why not scream _yes Mommy, help me, I'm scared?_ "It's just that-" something, say anything. "I'm sick of having no future, all right?"

"Yenzi." That blank look on Mom's face. Why wouldn't she get angry? "Why would you say that?"

"Forge-bending? No one even knows what that is anymore, Mom." She turned her back because it was easier to lie when she wasn't looking Mom in the face. "It's a dying art. A woman's art."

"And what in Agni's name is wrong with a woman's art? If you think for one second there's anything but pride in creating with your fire, not destroying-"

"That's great, welcome to the Age of Ji Lian!" Yenzi spun to face her. "Fire is a weapon, didn't you hear sometime in the last hundred years?"

Mom started. "How do you know that era name? I know your school doesn't teach it."

"Friends." She shouldn't have said that, the Age of Severed Continuity in honor of the Air Nomad Avatar. Sengmi had made her promise to keep it secret because it was forbidden like all the Ages of the Avatars. She sneaked a glance at Mom in rising suspicion. "How do you know?"

"Friends." Mom tapped her foot. "Let's not speak of it again."

Shang had been right, her city really was a hothouse of discontent. The thought made Yenzi giddy.

She took a breath. "Look, Mom. I know you don't like this, but it's what I chose."

Mom raised a hand. "I know. I was—surprised, that's all."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you first. I wasn't sure how you'd react." Oh, she'd known all right. It was why she hadn't said anything.

"Honey." Her mother's voice pulled Yenzi's gaze up to meet hers. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Yeah, I know." No, she couldn't. She was a grownup now, and that meant she had to protect her parents just like they had protected her when she was a child. Her secrets weighed on her, heavy as adulthood. "Can I go to my room?"

"Of course. Let's talk again, all right? You have to- to leave in days." Mom's smile tottered as if on an edge. "So many preparations to make."

Yenzi went to the kitchen door, then turned back. "It's going to be all right. They'll probably make me a prison guard, like Ming. I mean, not like her because she's not, but like lots of women firebenders."

"Ming." Mom raised her eyebrows. "You know, when I found out you'd joined the army I thought maybe it was to follow her. You're always talking about her."

"No, I'm not. And she's not. In the army, I mean." The days were getting warm around here, especially under her collar. "The Royal Security Service is a completely different organization, even though they coordinate on defense and security."

"Woman firebender." Mom sighed. "That's still strange to me, Yenzi. To think of my little girl as a woman."

"Believe me, it's weirder from where I'm standing." Yenzi escaped to her room, her feet pounding in time to her heart.

* * *

She'd put out one fire. Now she just had to wait for Dad to come home and lose his mind. Or maybe not, because Mom could calm him down. Otherwise, Yenzi didn't want to know what she might have to say make him back off. Maybe scream _You're not my REAL father! _and slam every door and window in the house? Sounded fun.

"Yenzi?" The voice was almost a whisper outside her door. "Can I come in?"

Agni's gut, she'd forgotten the third fire. She cleared her throat to make sure her voice would hold.

"Sure, Squirt."

Lijin opened the door and stepped around the books and clothes that in a week Mom wouldn't be there to nag her about. No one would be there to nag her, unless it was to make her run ten thousand laps around a training yard or something.

She moved over on the bed to make room for him, clearing a notebook and tunic by sweeping them to the floor, and her brother came to sit next to her. She could see the shiny burn scars when the westering sun shone right on his face like this.

"Is everything okay with Mom?" Lijin looked down at his hands, which mashed into each other in his lap. Yenzi's throat threatened to close; she knew how he hated shouting ever since that night of the attack, and here she was picking fights with Mom.

"It's all good, kiddo." She put an arm on his back, moving little by little because sudden touches scared him. "She's great, you know that." She felt like mussing his hair, but it was in inch-long bristles to even out the parts that were burned. By the time it grew back she wouldn't be here.

"Yeah." Lijin hunched down with his elbows on his knees. "So you're going?"

"Yeah." So he'd been listening in. She didn't know how this might affect Lijin when he was still getting better, but it was better than the alternative. _And where would your brother go?_ Lijin needed Mom and Dad so much more than he needed her.

Lijin leaned in to put his arms around her, his warmth spreading from the touch into her chest. She hugged him back, pressing her cheek to the top of his head.

"Do you have to?"

No, she thought, she wouldn't go anywhere without him. No one would ever separate her from her little brother like they almost did that night of the assassination, and she'd burn down anything that tried.

"Yeah." She closed her eyes. "I have to."

For a moment she breathed him in, grass and ink and a dash of that baby smell from years ago, back when she'd resented the squalling creature that had intruded into her life and sucked all her mother's love away.

She thought for a second that Lijin was going to start crying, but he drew away. He had never cried since the night of the attack, not while he was awake anyway.

"Why're they taking you away?"

"They're not taking me away, silly." She attempted a laugh, but it came out breathless. "I'm volunteering."

"Liar." It occurred to her how much older he looked since the attack. He had lost his baby fat and there were bones in his face that she hadn't seen before. She'd noticed girls in his class and even older making eyes at him, which seemed... wrong. Eventually she would get used to the idea of her Squirt dating, maybe when he was fifty-four.

"Look." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm only here for another few days. Let's enjoy the time we have, okay?"

Lijin was staring at the wall next to her door. He brought a hand to his mouth and scraped his teeth across a ragged thumbnail. "This wouldn't happen if the Dragon Prince ascended."

"What? Lijin." She snatched his hand away, making him look at her. "His name is Prince Zuko. There is no Dragon Prince, and he's not going to," her chest quaked at the thought, " 'ascend' to anything. Because we already have a Firelord and that's treason. Do you understand?"

When he didn't answer, she shook him by a shoulder. "Do you understand?"

"Yeah?" Before the attack, he would have been in tears before she was half this angry. "Then what about the things the Firelord did? Isn't that treason?"

"I don't know what he did. No one knows. I don't care!" She stood up, fighting the urge to stick her fingers in her ears and hum at the top of her lungs. Where was he getting these ideas? Who was he talking to?

"I'm not going to do anything, Yenzi. I just want to be ready."

"For what?" He winced at that, and she realized she was shouting. She cranked her voice down with an effort. "Is this what the archery lessons are about?" It was the older boys in those classes talking to him, she was sure of it.

"What about the lessons?" He seemed fascinated by the engineering manual that lay near his foot. "It's not like they cost anything."

He was changing the subject, the little flaker. She decided to play along. "I know. Non-firebender boy, one course of weapons classes free on state voucher. Why don't firebenders get that? Or girls?"

"Your fire is your weapon, right?"

"Well, it doesn't go far against flying arrows." All those dead firebenders, stuck with feathered shafts. Ming could have been one of them.

Lijin went still. Oh, blast... what did she just say? "Lijin, I'm so-"

"No, you're right." He shook his head hard, eyes glassy as though he still saw Khoujin dying and Ming getting hurt saving his life. Was Ming okay now? She'd said she would be, the fabric of her voice torn with pain. "That's why."

_That's why._ They had all worried when Lijin started the classes at his insistence only a week after the attack. She had thought, hoped, he would quit after he collapsed during his first class, trembling on the ground as he blocked his ears against the whistle and thunk of the arrows. But he kept going back.

She remembered his eyes when he practiced on the target in the back yard, and she didn't like to think what he was seeing at the end of his arrows' flight.

He stood to face her now with that same look of ferocious focus.

"Stay safe, Yenzi." He hugged her again. "We're bringing you back."

"Don't you worry about me." She ended up ruffling his hair after all, and she chuckled to see him try to smooth it out. "Take care of Mom and Dad."

His eyes went to a point beyond her at a target only he could see. "I will."

She could tell he meant it, and somehow that made her go cold all over.

* * *

Zue Hang, Third-Level Civil Clerk at the Second Sub-Office of New Recruits at the Office of Service Placement at the Department of Human Resources at the War Ministry, scanned the file before him. Tien Yenzi, seventeen. Firebender, female. Finished her secondary, apprenticed for a year with her blacksmith mother until she enlisted.

He dipped his brush in his inkwell with stylized sun designs along the edges. He detested the newfangled bottled stuff, preferring the even texture of hand-ground ink. He tapped the bristles on the inner edge of the well, ridding it of excess ink.

The usual placing for a female firebender was in one of the prisons, especially the high-security prisons like Boiling Rock, or one of the Colonies where there was always demand for security staff. But the background of this one put Zue in an adventurous mood. To be sure, his idea of adventure included ordering peppermint instead of jasmine for his Hour of the Tiger-Wolf tea.

In seconds his expert fingers found the reference file and the request for more welders at the shipyard at Jinsei's Watch. Yes, there it was at the bottom, that firebenders were especially welcome. Not many women worked in the shipyards, but then again not many women volunteered for engineering and repairs as Tien had.

His brush went to the blank portion on her file next to "Post," and he was about to fill it in when his eyes went over the Tien file again in a cursory check. His gaze fell on her hometown, and he pulled his brush back. He had almost forgotten that part, it was an unusual directive after all.

This directive was not in any written form, but it was understood that those who ignored such things too blatantly would find themselves cut off from promotion and scrounging up a working desk in a branch office of a branch office in the distant corner of nowhere.

Zue knew he could allow for a few exceptions, but he had acquaintances in that area who might require the favor. He couldn't use his unofficial allowance on someone who was just a name to him.

He coated the bristles of his brush with fresh ink, tapped out the excess, and wrote "Forty-First Division" next to "Posting."

Zue's eyes went again to the Tien girl's home region of Haishan, one of the troubled regions whose recruits were to fill out the ranks of the Forty-First. He clucked his tongue: He had daughters, and it was not the Department's usual policy to send women into front-line combat. But the decision was not his to make.

He moved onto the next file, taking care to glance at the home region first, and within moments he forgot Tien Yenzi's name. Her placement review had taken less time than it did to steep a pot of tea.

* * *

The fire on the dais leapt and crackled, devouring the air in the room and replacing it with a heat that could blister skin by itself. The girl did not seem to feel it as she rose from obeisance, nor the shadowed outline who sat surrounded by the flames.

"Azula." The Firelord inclined his head to gaze on her. "I trust you feel better now."

"I do, Father. Thank you." Azula bowed her head. "I am grateful you granted me this audience on such short notice."

The Firelord waved her words away. "It is late. Why did you ask to see me?"

Azula lifted her head, a smile slashing across her face. The fiery luminescence of Ozai's throne suffused her skin and was mirrored in her eyes until she seemed a creature of fire herself, burning with her own inner flame.

* * *

**End of ****Part 2: Shadows**

The next chapter begins **Part 3: Dragonfire.** We are very, very close to the end, thanks for sticking with this!

* * *

_Next: Lessons in respect._


	41. Chapter 18: Respect 1 of 2

Note: Amy Raine and vmuzic improved this chapter immeasurably with their comments on the Azula scene. Hats off to their insight and honesty, and be sure to watch for vmuzic's upcoming Iroh fic _Becoming a Dragon, _a story I'm very excited about.

I am also indebted to Kaigou's post "Deconstructing Azula" for the first scene of this chapter and elsewhere. I don't agree with all Kaigou's points, but it's definitely interesting. You can read the essay here: kaigou dreamwidth org 350898 html

Retcon 1: I have summarily changed Yenzi's surname to "Tien." After this chapter I'm sure you'll see why. Please tell me if you notice any instances of "Ti" I might have missed.

Retcon 2: I have retroactively delayed Zhao's promotion to Captain due to a scene I added to this chapter after posting the last. You probably won't notice unless you read Chapter 17 before this update.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Part III: Dragonfire**

**Chapter 18: Respect**

* * *

**閏五月 十三日**

**Day 13, leap month of May:**

上命世子伏地脫冠徒跣扣頭仍下不忍聞之敎促其自裁

His Majesty the King ordered the Crown Prince to prostrate himself, crownless and barefoot, and condemned his son with words this scribe could bear neither to hear nor repeat.

上仍下廢爲庶人之命

He proclaimed that his son be stripped of title and honor, and be disgraced.

世子哭而復入伏地哀乞請改過爲善

The Crown Prince wept prostrate, begging for the chance to redeem himself.

上敎愈嚴 都承旨曰

The King's words grew yet more severe and his retainer remonstrated, saying:

殿下以深宮一女子之言動搖國本乎

"Would your Grace denounce the Crown Prince on the words of a palace woman?"

上震怒 遂命世子幽囚

His Majesty, incensed, ordered the Crown Prince deeply confined.

**閏五月 二十一日**

**Day 21, Leap month of May:**

世子薨逝

The Crown Prince has passed away.

**英祖實錄 三十八年 (1762年壬午)**

**From the Annals of Yeongjo* in this the thirty-eighth year of his reign (A.D. 1762, Year of Black Ox)**

* Born in 1694, twenty-first King of Choson from 1724 to his death in 1776. In 1762 he ordered the imprisonment of his disgraced son, Crown Prince Sado, who died eight days into his captivity at the age of twenty-seven.

* * *

_I never meant to kill you, you know._

Azula watched the sun spill onto the arena in a brilliance just shy of midday. Zuko's kneeling form cast a blot on the brightness, a stunted shadow in the light. His eyes were closed in meditation, though his shoulders heaved as he tried to keep his breathing deep and even. Couldn't he even do that right?

She turned her head at a shift in the crowd, the stride of men in armor. A sidelong glance over her shoulder confirmed the sight of Lieutenant Zhao, and behind him...

So, Father had made his decision. She gave a tiny nod to the Lieutenant and to General Shu who had arrived with him, and fought to suppress the exultation bubbling up her chest. Bursting into laughter at this point might catch Zuko's attention, or Uncle's. Biting the inside of her cheek, she turned her focus back to Zuko.

She could see the tension visible in the lines of his torso; no doubt he was wondering why his opponent was not here yet, and why Father wasn't watching. He had glanced at the high seat as he entered, but wasn't putting two and two together yet. Azula wondered if she could have guessed if she were in his position, then killed the thought because that would never be her.

That was the heart of the matter, wasn't it? It was Zuko and the way he pushed Father again and again, after the Firelord's countless warnings and endless patience. Zuko just would not let up no matter how much Father put up with, and piled ingratitude on insubordination on insolence until he finally had the gall to question his Firelord in a council of war.

As she watched Zuko struggle to master his breathing—what a child—her own breathing grew longer, reaching deep into her abdomen, as though she could show Zuzu how it was done. Not that he had ever followed her lead, which was his loss, and he wasn't even looking at her right now.

She felt it, though, when they started breathing together, each breath in and out at the same time. It was like when they had trained together as little kids, before she started blazing so far ahead it became pointless to pretend they were in the same league.

The shared rhythm of their breathing felt like a warm bubble around the two of them, as though they flowed in a space apart from the others. And they did, didn't they? They were royalty, children of the sun who were asked to bear burdens lesser beings never could. The same blood flowed in their veins and marked them apart from the others.

_So why won't you understand, Zuko?_

The sound of the gong ruffled through the air. She watched, almost felt Zuko let out a long, steadying breath. Her throat went dry for some reason, her fingers cold.

_It didn't have to be this way,_ she thought as he rose to his feet. _Stupid, careless, ungrateful-_

If only he had paused to think about his blunder in provoking the nobility at Tamalan, he would not be in this position. If he'd had any concept of his obligation as a prince of the realm, he would, he _should,_ have thanked her for helping the assassination attempt and bringing the nobles back in line.

It wasn't like she had been trying to kill him. If all else failed his sword-fiend, the Red Spirit that was her gift, would have given his pathetic life for Zuko's.

And how could she have tried to kill him? Princess Ursa had loved her son beyond all reason and sense, after all, enough to abandon her husband and daughter for him. _Promise me, Azula. _At moments like these she still felt the woman's fingers dig into her shoulders. _Swear to me you will never take Zuko's life._

She had never promised to save Zuko from himself, though, nor could she. On the arena stage her brother shed the ceremonial cover from his shoulders and turned to face his opponent, not knowing he was already damned by his own hand.

Azula watched the whites grow in Zuko's eyes as Father, unshadowed in the resplendence of the sun at zenith, stepped into the arena. The corners of her brother's mouth turned down in a grimace of fear, no, terror. She wondered what it was like: Did it turn the sunlight dark and plunge you down a well with no bottom? Did it run fingers of ice through you while whispering nightmares in your ear? She shivered with what must be excitement.

Zuko stood gawking for so long she felt like telling him off for being rude. He wasn't actually considering going through with the duel, was he? The thought fleeted by, that maybe he wasn't bright enough to understand what it meant for a royal claimant to challenge a sitting Firelord. But no, he was falling on his face stammering excuses, weeping like a baby.

Triumph tingled up her spine, stretching her lips wide in a gleeful smile. She thought she might scream from thrill that ran through her body, at Zuko laid bare to the world as the useless weakling he was. Oh, it was almost a pity he'd folded so easily. Else Father would have been forced to obliterate everyone who supported the challenger, and the look on Zuko's face would have been something to see.

Because those lowborn men and women meant more to him than his own blood, didn't they? Why else would he try to hound his own sister from court? He couldn't let go of his men's deaths, or stomach how she was doing her duty to their father and country. She wished she were standing over the self-righteous little boy in Father's place.

Beside her the sunlight glanced off Uncle Iroh's bald pate as he lifted his head, a challenge in his eyes, before he stopped himself. Oh, she would like to see him try and face Father, and be stamped out in turn. Uncle and Zuko would have liked her to go away, sweet and pretty with her dolls, but they should have known she would not live in any pen they wanted to herd her into.

She would sooner destroy herself on her own terms.

Father stood bathed in radiance, bright as the Sun in the light of his courage and wisdom. She might have given him reasons for fighting the Agni Kai himself, but for all she knew he had made up his mind long before her audience. In the end it was Father's decision to fight this duel personally, to put an end to Zuko's provocations and save his son and country. The skyfire flowed through Father like a blessing, like grace, right into into Zuko's-

It took her a moment to realize that the pale flicker in the sun was her brother's face on fire, and the noise rending at the air was his screaming. Why did her heart thunk in her chest as though to burst free of it, and why did a scream well up in her own throat?

She put force into the grin that hung suddenly empty from her face, because Father would not do this unless Zuko deserved it, and he did, every last shred of scorching agony. He was the failure, the traitorous son. She was gifted, sun-blessed even. She would never disobey and betray Father like Zuko had, never so long as she had breath in her lungs.

No, it couldn't happen to her, so it _could not_ be fear that turned her stomach in its place and left an acrid taste in her mouth. She was disgusted at Zuko, that was all, sick at the sight of his weakness. It was what she told herself while the flames died down on Zuko's face and his scream cut off, leaving his sobbing breaths in her ears where she thought they might echo forever.

* * *

_In my vision did I watch the Dragon descend upon the Prince, terrible in His magnificence and power._

Ozai approached Zuko step by step. Iroh saw his intent, as he would have long before if he had not utterly failed to read the currents, if he were not a doddering fool who had failed Zuko.

_The Dragon opened His great maw, the heat of the devouring flames not to be borne by beings of mortal flesh._

An inhuman voice, mad with pain and fear, cut across Iroh's thoughts. _Stop Ozai. _Kill_ him. Protect your boy._ What matter if the Nation burned? What matter, to save Zuko from what was coming next?

Iroh clenched his fist until it hurt, and focused his entire being upon that pain. Openly challenging the Firelord meant giving up his own life, plunging the Fire Nation into civil war, and most importantly, condemning Zuko.

Even so he might not have been able to stop himself, watching the fire blossom in Ozai's hand, were it not for the memory of Elder Lao Tai's letter.

_Strange did it seem to me as the Dragonfire struck my lord the Prince, that it was a cleansing fire as well as one of destruction..._

The flames rushed forth, and Iroh snapped his head away. A coward he was to not stand and watch the consequence of his inaction, but he could not stand still if he saw. The heat struck him even where he stood, and Zuko's scream hit his heart.

The only things that dammed back the keening lamentation in his chest were the words of an aged peasant, words that had come to him in a desperate act of faith and courage across the distance and against the odds.

_...and though his tribulations be such that a man would shrink at the thought of it, the young Prince would be remade through them purer, stronger, and the readier to bear his burden._

The heat of the fire faded and Zuko's scream choked off. Iroh dared to look, an invisible boulder on his chest making it hard to breathe.

Zuko held himself upright on his knees with a hand propped on the arena floor. One eye met Iroh's while the other...

Zuko's free hand hovered over the left half of his face, but could not cover the shapeless mulch the fire had made of it, nor the remains of burnt hair that still gave off sparks and smoke. Standing there breathing the smell of his nephew's burnt flesh, Iroh felt the light fade from his world as it had those years ago.

Ozai was saying something about dishonor and cowardice, but the words meant nothing to Iroh. He lit his anger, his pain, and fear into a flame within that did not shake or doubt, and kept himself upright so Zuko might hold steady in turn.

The boy's gaze wavered from his father to Iroh, struggling to comprehend what had happened to him. This was the time of kindness, when full sense and knowledge had yet to hit him.

Iroh heard, as if from a great distance, Ozai order Zuko confined to his quarters. The Firelord's gaze fell on Iroh as he turned; they held each other's eyes for less than a heartbeat before Ozai walked away.

Zuko reached out in entreaty, but lost his balance and toppled forward to prop himself on his elbows. He spoke, but his voice was mangled from the flames he must have inhaled.

Iroh ran to his boy and caught him up. The courtiers gasped at the sight of Zuko's face, but Iroh had no time to care. He did not understand his own words when he called for the physicians but they came running anyway, each footfall an eternity.

"Uncle..." The unfamiliar voice scratched its way out of Zuko. Tears welled up in the eye that was not melted shut. "I failed."

"No." Iroh rocked him in his arms. "Do not speak, Zuko, your throat is damaged."

He almost cried out when they took Zuko from him. They laid him down and put cold compresses on the burns, then swarmed around him and hid him from view.

Through the healers' barked orders and the murmurs of the crowd Zuko called for the man who had done this to him, apologizing and begging until the thread of his consciousness, mercifully, broke.

The first aid done, the healers and attendants lifted Zuko onto a stretcher and hurried him out of the arena. Iroh thought he should follow, but he was not sure his legs would hold him. Most of the spectators had left, the stragglers casting glances of curiosity or pity at the old man who sat on the floor as though his wits were gone. Iroh rocked back and forth where he sat, holding Lu Ten in his arms, holding Zuko, while he recalled over and over the words of foreboding and comfort.

_I have seen, and you have heard, what my Prince has done for the least of his countrymen. The Spirits prepared the path, but he it was who walked it to claim the sigil of his birthright, the token of a friendship turned to strife that may yet be made whole again._

_The time is come and I, who have been for too long the keeper of this exalted bequest, do humbly submit it into the keeping of the Dragon of the West that he may forge a great destiny for his nephew and this Land of the Summer Folk._

_I wish my lords spirit-luck and an easy voyage, and may the storm clouds pass you by._

_Your servant Lao Tai, Elder of Ta Min's Anchorage, called Taminlan_

* * *

Captain Ji of the_ Firebrand _was beginning to regret the day he had received his commission. His footfalls clanged up the steps in time with the problems that ricocheted in his head, from engine troubles to ebbing water supplies. Nothing seemed to be going right since he took on elements of the Forty-First for transport to the Earth Kingdom.

"I'll swear to anything you like, Captain, it wasn't none of the girl's fault." The young Corporal kept pace with him, talking all the while. "It was the Ensign as started it. He brought up things he had no business saying, in particular to a lady. She told him to shut up, and then the heat was on 'til he asked why it was she were so defensive, was it because she was in the same, um, condition, and she-"

"He what?" Ji spun to face the Corporal in the square pool of light from the hatch above. Zanzen started and almost lost his footing on the steps.

"He, he asked if she weren't-" the boy reddened. "I shouldn't be repeating none of that, sir. That would be when he fell overboard, and they killed the engines to fish him out o' the sea."

Ji raced up the rest of the steps, Zanzen scrambling to catch up.

"What the blazes is going on here!" Ji burst onto the deck and the sunlit air. "Where's Ensign Choi?"

"We have him, Captain!" A group of men opened a section of the railing to pull in the Ensign, his topknot sagging and water streaming from his armor.

"Explain." Ji strode to Choi who was staggering to his feet, dripping water on the deck.

"That crazy girl Tien threw me overboard, sir." Choi thrust a finger toward a young woman Private, about eighteen years old, held between two burly marines. "She could have killed me!"

"I did not throw you, liar!" Private Tien struggled against the marines' grip. "You threatened me, then overbalanced yourself running away from the weird fire. You also screamed like a girl." One eyebrow, raised higher than the other, twitched in amusement while the recruits around her tittered.

"What she says is true, sir," Zanzen said next to him.

"Corporal, stop talking now." Ji rubbed at the stabbing headache between his eyes. "And Private, you are in blatant violation of Fire Navy regulations, against a superior officer at that. You need to learn some respect on my ship."

"_He_ needs to learn respect. How dare he repeat those lies about his Highness? Prince Zuko is a boy. A child!" Private Tien looked past him at the dripping Ensign. "You wanted to teach me a lesson, Choi? Go ahead! I'll tear that ugly mouth wide-"

"Enough. You're landing yourself in hotter water, Private." He had better things to worry about than some highborn oaf who was clumsy enough to hurt himself in training but seemed to have no trouble getting some servant pregnant, if the rumors were true.

"And what are you standing around for?" Ji swept his eyes over the watching men, his crew and the smooth-faced recruits in the Forty-First. "Back to your posts. Now!" He felt the pressure in his head ease at the way they hurried to scatter.

"My father would be interested to know how this assault was handled." Ensign Choi wrung the water out of his clothes onto the deck, where others would have to mop it away. "He always said you were a fair-minded man, Captain."

Was this Admiral Choi's son, then? Sometimes he forgot, with the number of second- and third-eldest lordlings who hoped to make a career in the Navy. At least the Firelord hadn't packed his own idiot son out to sea. Yet.

"I have a question for you, too, Ensign." Ji sauntered toward Choi. "Did you insinuate that Private Tien here is pregnant with an illegitimate child?"

"What's that? Oh." Choi shrugged as he tried to rearrange his sopping hair. "You know how it is with these lowborn girls, sir. I heard it's going around."

"I see." Ji reached up to put an arm around the Ensign's shoulder and turned him around, wrenching the lever to reopen the railing. The sea spread out to the horizon, lapping against the unmoving hull.

"Uh... Captain?"

"Remember your training," Ji slapped the man on the back so he wobbled. "Feet first, and relax."

"Wait! Captain-"

Ji hauled him by the collar into the air; Choi's scream trailed him all the way down until it was interrupted by a splash below. Private Tien had been wrong, though. The Ensign sounded distinctly like a frightened little boy, not a woman.

"Give him a count of twenty before you pull him up." He looked down at the way Choi sputtered and splashed. "Actually, he seems fine. Give him thirty."

His headache was gone by the time he turned to Tien. "As for you, Private-"

But it was Zanzen he faced instead, blocking Tien with his lanky form. "Captain, it weren't her fault-"

"Out of my way, lout." The girl's voice rose in annoyance behind him. Real sweetheart, this one. "I can take care of myself."

"That's Corporal Lout to you, Private." Ji jerked his head to one side. "She's right, though. Step aside."

Zanzen did so, dragging his feet on the metal deck, revealing the girl who stuck her chin out at a belligerent angle.

"What are you going to do, sir, lock me up? If I can stay there through the landing, I'll throw three more ensigns overboard for you."

"Private, I have no time to spend arguing with you." He gestured at the marines. "Cool your head in the brig and think about what you've done."

"You can't tell me you don't know about the rumors." Tien tried to come closer, but was held back. "We're not on a mission, we're being sent to our deaths!"

He could see the other recruits hovering around the edges of the commotion, their looks of fear deepening as the girl spoke. This had to end now.

"You just threw a man overboard for dealing in rumors. You're a soldier now, Tien. The possibility of death is everywhere, but the Fire Nation will not waste your lives." He nodded to the marines. "Take her away."

"I hope you're right, sir." Her eyes were on him as they turned her around. "It's just that I saw how things could be different—how it might actually matter what becomes of someone like me. Maybe," her feet scraped the deck as the marines pulled her, "maybe I saw a dragon."

Her raised brow twitched as though she couldn't believe her own words. One of the marines jerked her arm, and she followed without further fuss. Ji had to restrain the urge to call them back. A dragon?

A commotion to his left reminded him of the loose end he had left. Choi, hairpiece gone and his hair plastered over his face, clambered onto the deck with the help of the crew.

"So you are back with us." Ji turned to the young man. "I hope in the future you'll remember to keep a civilized tongue in your head. And give my regards to Admiral Choi."

He ordered the ship to resume course and walked away, too preoccupied with a puzzle to spare a thought for the Ensign.

_A dragon._ Someone who cared for Fire Nation lives. He tried to shake years-old legends out of his head while the hundred little duties he needed to attend to crowded in once more.


	42. Chapter 18: Respect 2 of 2

A chorus of greetings met her when the guards let her into the antechamber to the Prince's rooms. Her progress was slow, hampered every few steps by someone who wanted to hug or chat. When she made her way to the desk in the back, Iroh put his writing brush down and rose to greet her.

"Ming." He patted her back, careful to avoid her left arm in its sling. "How are you feeling?"

"Sparking, General Iroh, as the kids say. The tea you sent really helped." She smiled, her face a shade or two paler from being out of the sun. "The healers just wanted to keep it still a little longer to make sure. I'll be ready to report to duty in a week or two."

"Splendid, splendid." Iroh looked distracted. "Perhaps you should get more rest before you start work? This is something of a hectic time..."

"I thought that made it the best time to visit. There are more of you here." Ming took in the room, the guards leaving and arriving, others talking in hushed voices, polishing weapons, or slumped against a wall in sleep.

"Only those who want to be here. Not all of them."

"I want to be here." Her gaze went to the door at the back of the room, closed with a clear space around it where no one lingered. "How is he?"

Iroh walked to a window overlooking the garden outside, and she followed.

"He is fevered, and in pain. The doctors believe they can save his eye." His voice cracked. "I go see him whenever I can, but he requires rest. As do you."

"I heard the rumors. Some of the great houses want more than what's already been done to him. They say the Rangs and the Zhaos are very vocal."

Iroh gestured at her to lower her voice. "It is a possibility, one we are preparing for. Lieutenant Cheng gave her word we will be safe here."

"Lieutenant, huh? It's about time." Ming's grin faded. "She's a good woman, but there's nothing she can do against an order from the Firelord. If he gives the word, all of you here will share Prince Zuko's fate."

Iroh's sigh was pained. "This watch is for volunteers only. I have turned away anyone with children or aged parents to care for."

"So it's a last stand. Again."

"You have already suffered too much." Iroh touched her arm through the sling. "I cannot ask more."

"I think the others gave you the same answer, sir. We went through that night together, and some of us didn't make it. We have a right to face this together, too." Her shoulders straightened as she spoke, the shadows of pain fading from her face. "It's my right."

Iroh looked away. "I wish you young people would heed an old man's warning."

She laughed. "Maybe next time, sir. Now excuse me, I need to catch up with some friends."

Iroh watched her go, then returned to his desk where he sank down to write.

_What more is there to say, Elders? I have failed to protect Prince Zuko, and now he and those loyal to him are in danger of paying for my mistakes with their lives. I can only ask, no, beg you to help. If you truly believe in Zuko's destiny—if you can find some way—the time to act is now._

_If you cannot or will not, this may be my last report. I can only ask forgiveness for not keeping the trust I took on in my arrogance. I hope for mercy and forgiveness in the lands beyond shadow if not in this one._

* * *

"This has gone too far, Lieutenant. I want it stopped."

"I of course understand your feelings, Princess. This is your own brother we are speaking of. Yet matters of state cannot turn on sentiment alone."

"Don't patronize me." Azula spun to face him in the shadow of the garden pavilion, a deeper black in the night that had fallen over the caldera city. "I know clear as day your father and his fellows are calling Zuko a traitor, and I know how they hound the Firelord for his son's life. It ends. Now."

"Your generosity of spirit does you credit," Zhao murmured. "Nevertheless, surely you realize your brother openly defied the Firelord in a council of war, forcing his Majesty to reassert his authority through a confrontation—which your brother was too craven to fight. I think you can see why some call these the actions of a traitor and coward."

Azula stared at him, her mouth working. "No. That's not what I- that's not how it- he backed down, and repented his defiance to our father. He paid his price."

"Yet some feel an offense of treason requires more. My father is one of them."

"Zuko is a Prince of the Blood." Azula's shoulder twitched. "It is not for lesser men to say what becomes of his fate!"

"That authority rests solely with the Firelord, of course. Lesser men may merely remind him he cannot risk any appearance of weakness at this time. If the light of his Majesty's throne were to darken, the Fire People would be lost."

"And so you call for royal blood to spill." Azula's eyes narrowed in the dimness. "What does that do to the light of the royal throne, I wonder?"

Zhao shrugged. "I will make your concerns known to Lord Zhao, though I can guarantee nothing. Some men may be overly reliant on their children's judgment, but that has never been my father's weakness."

Blue sparks flew from Azula's fist as she clenched it. "Watch what you say, Lieutenant. You may still want a title other than that one."

"Forgive me, my lady, if I misspoke." He inclined his head. "Of course I look forward to my upcoming commission. I am aware how imperfect a man this honor is being bestowed on; it is always possible I may misspeak on other subjects, for instance on the way the plan to sacrifice the Forty-First Division came about."

Azula was still for a long moment. "I seem to remember others were involved in that decision."

"It is why those others will not speak of it, as long as they have something to lose. I believe everyone does, your Highness, especially those who were recently under scrutiny themselves."

Azula's eyes glowed a baleful gold, and the shadows on Zhao's face shifted as his cheeks stretched in a smirk. "Even royal birth seems to afford little protection in these troubled times."

* * *

"All I'm saying, Captain, is it don't add up."

"And I'm saying, Corporal, that I don't care." Ji raised his hands from the desk and dropped them with a thud. "I've too much to do to listen to conspiracy theories."

"I've been asking around, and these kids are scared. Seems like everyone whose parents know or bribed someone in the War Ministry was pulled, last of the last minute."

Ji rose from his desk to leave for his daily inspection. "People with connections get themselves exempted from combat duty all the time. We might wish this were not the case, Corporal, but it is."

"Right you are, sir. But I heard twenty of these stories, easy, on a ship transporting two hundred. And every one of them as got out looked like they'd seen an apparition-like, and begged their buddies to get out however they can."

Ji acknowledged his sailors' salutes on his way down the corridor. He should send the Corporal on his way with a sharp word about spreading rumors, but Ji had always made a point of listening to his men. What Zanzen was saying about the Forty-First being somehow marked for death was ridiculous, but that was all the more reason to shine the light of reason on these misconceptions.

He paused in an empty passageway to look up at Zanzen, the deep thrum of the ship around them.

"You are describing pre-operation jitters, nothing more. I understand these new recruits are unnerved, but I need you to hold steady for them."

"You're probably right, sir." Zanzen swept non-regulation forelocks away from his face. "But that's another thing as been buggin' me. It may be a showdown we're headed for, and I believe we are if they want Ardent-class beauties like this one." He thumped the hull next to him. "So why the scared kids instead o' fire-tempered veterans? It don't make a whole lot of sense to me."

If he were honest with himself it did not make sense to Ji, either. Knowing where they were headed, he had taken a second look at the roster to make sure these were the actual landing personnel. Wind and waves preserve, they looked like babies to him. But he was not here to share his doubts with a subordinate.

"And a lot of them know each other, seems like." Zanzen spoke slowly, as though untangling a skein. "Half are from the same city, even. And there's too many girls. I never seen so many of them on a warship."

"And I never heard you complain there were too many girls." Ji did not tell him that the number of girls troubled him as well. These were schoolgirls, too, not the women veterans who defended the port cities and secured the Colonies, not the hard-edged fighters who volunteered on the front lines, nor even prison guards who were as quick with a quip as they were with their fire.

"I should've complained a bit more, sir. They're a whole lot of trouble." The young man looked down. "They make me want to save them, when I can't do a thing."

Ji wondered if the Corporal was thinking of one girl in particular, but what did it matter? Encounters in wartime were as fleeting as a gullbatross skimming the sea. You got what you needed if you were lucky, and then you moved on.

"Corporal, why don't you go down to the hold ahead of me while I check this level." He clapped Zanzen on the arm. "I'm sure they'd appreciate the time to get any contraband out of the way."

"Might I sample some of it as long as I'm there, sir? Strictly for inspection purposes, of course."

"No doubt. Now get out of here."

The boy saluted and turned away, looking the better for having confided in someone. Left alone in the hum and thump of the ship, Ji found himself wishing he could do the same. But fears and doubts flowed up the chain of command, not down, and it all stopped with him on this ship.

_Maybe I saw a dragon._

There it was again, blast the girl. It had been such an odd thing to say, and he might have dismissed it from anyone else. Yet young as she was, Tien didn't seem the sort to buy in to wide-eyed dreams. So what had she seen to say something like that?

The general, born a prince, treated each man as a brother no matter how high or lowly born. They said he mourned each man in his command who fell. He knew their names, knew their lives, and would never waste their sacrifices...

Ji shook his head; he had no time for this. He walked on, continuing his inspection. Yet questions remained in his head, going around and around with no resolution.

* * *

Iroh sat down at his desk to find a sheet on top of his papers that he had not put there himself. His heart thudded between fear and hope as he bent over the letter, the words blurring together in his fatigue.

_Plans are underway to save you. Take heart! We will not abandon the Dragon Prince, nor our brother who must guide him and watch over him. Stay in position to take advantage once events are in motion._

* * *

Note: The quote at the beginning of the chapter is a heavily edited version of the original historical record. If you're curious, I have a fuller translation plus historical notes at my LJ.

* * *

_Next: Voices raised in supplication, hope, and rage._


	43. Chapter 19: Voices 1 of 5

Note: It is a measure of both my insecurity with Chapter 19 and my extreme good fortune that I was able to rope no less than three excellent beta-readers into commenting on this chapter. None other than amanda91 of _Three Years at Sea_ looked over the naval scenes for me, and the long-suffering Amy Raine did me the kindness of reading the entire monstrosity to give me some tough-minded editing comments. Vmuzic, whose handle I always have a hard time spelling and whose Iroh project _Becoming a Dragon_ is almost ready to roll, finished up by reading over the rearranged chapter and asking me to clarify a couple of things. I thank them all for the time and effort they expended and their gracious comments. And I thank you, reader, for sticking with this so far—we are really close to the end now, I hope I can make the rest of this journey enjoyable. If it is not, it will be in spite of the wonderful help I have been getting and my fault will be all the greater.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 19: Voices**

* * *

_Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit._

You must not listen to those people who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.

- Alcuin of York in a letter to Charlemagne, A.D. 798

* * *

Men and women filled the streets of Haishan in the blush of early morning as they did every day. Today, however, the shops they passed were shuttered, and they shared none of the cheery complaints of folk starting a new day. They all walked in the same direction, each face grim with purpose.

Their numbers swelled as they went, though they were quiet other than murmured greetings. Shopkeepers, craftsmen, clerks, and laborers streamed down the streets, unhurried yet unstoppable as a river over a great plain. Guards in uniform, some of them rubbing the sleep from their eyes and adjusting their armor, awaited where the main street broadened into a plaza. One with a lieutenant's sash bright on his arm stepped forward from the line, shouting at the crowd to disperse. The men and women of Haishan simply walked around and past the guards as water flows around stone.

"Tien!"

Tien Shou, just past the guards with his wife by his side, turned at the sound of his name. "Hullo, Young Jiang."

"Don't 'Young Jiang' me, I'm older than you." The guard sergeant with grey whiskers sticking out in every direction made his way to Tien, cursing as the crowd jostled him. "What is going on here?"

"We're all... out for a little stroll." Tien spread his big hands, his brows lifting in amusement. "Why not join us?"

Jiang rolled his eyes and let out a gust of breath. He was just turning away when Tien placed a hand on his arm.

"I heard about your boy." Tien Shou's eyes were serious. "March with us, Jiang. Your father's in here somewhere, too."

"Pah! My boy is fine, useless lump that he is." Jiang broke free of Tien's touch. "I expect my old man to believe every natter in the four winds, but you? Look here." He leaned in. "Get as many of these fools out of here as you can, even the old man if you can find him. Us local boys don't want to start anything, but the governor's going to blow his top clean off."

"Thanks Jiang, but I think I'll stay a little longer." The corners of Tien's eyes crinkled as his wife came to his side, still waving at her friends. "Go easy if you have to crack my head, all right?"

"Tien!" Young Jiang's voice was lost in the noise and the press as Tien walked away. "Tien, you idiot!"

The crowd filled the plaza before the city hall, and when it had no more space they stood in the streets that fed into the wider space. The guardsmen stood watching as the governor leaned out a second-story window, barking questions and commands to his subordinates.

Near the closed doors of the mansion Tien Shou put a corded arm around Shiri, shielding her from the push as everyone tried to figure out where to stand. The crowd settled in place as the sun rose higher in the sky, still moving around the edges as more people arrived.

The guardsmen sounded less conciliatory now, their commands to disperse growing louder in proportion to the governor's. Tien and and his wife reached out and caught each other's hands before the crowd shifted and rippled all in one direction. The guardsmen's voices rose in aggression colored with fear.

Two nights before, the back room of Shang's Rare Fabrics Emporium was packed with bodies amid bolts of cottonsilk and samples of linen hemp. Old Shang himself sat at the center of the gathering, drawing them all together like the steady flame of a lamp. "Remember, if you protest the war or speak out against the Firelord you will bring the full weight of his wrath on you and your families. This cannot be an anti-war or anti-Firelord protest."

"What should we protest, then, Master Shang?"

Heads turned at the voice, and people gave calls of both surprise and welcome. Tien Shou and An Shiri stood outside the circle of people, who quickly made room so the two of them could stand among them.

"I did not expect you, Master Tien. Madam An." Shang inclined his head to the new arrivals.

"We did not expect to be here." Tien returned the greeting, as did Shiri next to him. "And yet, here we are."

"May I know the purpose of your attendance?"

"We're here to join you. Isn't it obvious?" A ripple spread out from Shiri's words, whispers of approval, speculation, and sadness.

"Forgive me. We are of course delighted to have you with us, but you never expressed an interest before."

"They took my little girl away." Tien Shou's voice came from somewhere deeper than himself. "The child lied about it to the end, and I couldn't—I didn't stop her."

"And then we found out where they sent her. We tried to get her back. We tried everything and everyone we could think of." Shiri looked away, blinking.

The air grew heavy as though with an impending storm. Rumors about the Forty-First Division had spread like a flash flood, from desperate parents, from people with ties to the military, from whispers and silence and anger black with the weight of years.

"We're here to help any way we can. We'll organize, spread the word. Just tell us what to do." Tien put a hand on his wife's shoulder, and she leaned into him.

Shang's face was somber. "You realize, despite our hopes, we might not be able to help your daughter."

"I know."

"You have a son who needs you."

"We're doing this for him, too. If it's true what they're trying to do to Prince Zuko..." Tien looked to Shang for confirmation, who nodded.

"It is true. Sources within the palace confirm that there was no training accident. He is laid up with an Agni Kai wound, and the most pro-war nobility are calling his actions treason."

Tien gritted his teeth. "He's the one heir to the throne who might change things for the better. If anything happens to him, Lijin will grow up in a country without hope." His hands clenched into calloused fists. "If we do nothing, our son will have cowards for parents who sat by and let his sister..."

He fell silent, a stricken look in his eyes while the pulse of the room throbbed red and deep around him.

Shiri placed a hand on her husband's arm, bringing him back from his thoughts. She turned to Master Shang.

"We're ready to act. And that brings us to our first question: What will we be protesting, if not the war?"

In the dim light Master Shang's face creased into a slow smile.

In the early morning sun the citizens in the plaza moved like a single being, turning and then shifting forward. The guardsmen at the gates shrank back to defend themselves, leveling hands and weapons.

Facing west toward Royal City, the crowd went to their knees and touched their hands and foreheads to the ground in profound obeisance. The sun shone on their backs stretched in row after sinuous row like the coils of some mythical beast.

"Firelord Ozai!" The voice of a crier rose over them, ringing across the summer sky as guardsmen and officials watched in amazement. "Defender of the realm, father to your people and son of the living flame, hear the voice of your subjects!"

Shouts of "Your Grace!" and "Your Majesty!" arose in the wake of the call, then fell silent as the crier continued. The guards looked to each other and then to the governor on the balcony.

"We ask your Grace's mercy for your firstborn, Prince Zuko who is second only to you in the hearts of the Summer People."

The protesters rose and bowed again in a great wave, calling out for Prince Zuko. Scattered shouts for the Dragon Prince were drowned out by the mass of the calls.

"Heed not the evil words of your advisers, exploiters and oppressors all who would cloud the light of your wisdom. Your Grace, sweep them from your sight as the sun dispels the mist!"

There was real rage in the crowd's roar even as they sank in obeisance. The governor shouted down at the nearest guardsmen, who looked at him in consternation. The guards shrugged at each other as their officers gave the order.

The crier went on. "In your infinite patience and justice, we beg that you forgive any youthful indiscretions Prince Zuko may have committed. Have mercy on your son! Mercy on Prince Zuko!"

"Mercy on Prince Zuko!" "Have mercy!" The words grew and stretched into a shout that seemed to come from one colossal being, until the city itself and the summer sky seemed to cry out for the Firelord's mercy on his son.

On his knees with the others, Tien reached out a hand. Shiri next to him did the same. They caught each other's hands and held tight while they added their voices to the city's, even as the guards moved in and a shiver went through the crowd.

* * *

A cocoon of heat and pain engulfed him, pressing him into the bed and stealing his thoughts as they came. There was something he had to do, people who depended on him, but his body refused to rise and his mind to focus.

Faces appeared above him, scrunched in concern. He saw Doctor Yi looking grave, maids whose eyes were wide with fright, and Uncle, from whom Zuko turned his face away, unable to meet those eyes that watched him as though he were the one flicker of light in the world.

Sleep was a jumble of nightmares old and new. The catapult missile trailed fire toward him, and Khoujin stumbled to his knees. Dragons gnawed at him and consumed him while he watched, helpless. The archer who had killed Khoujin screamed fire, burning forever. Mother's reaching hand sank into a sea of blood. Over and over Father walked across the Agni Kai arena to stand with his head against the sky, his presence swallowing the world.

Zuko begged the doctor not to give him sedatives. He refused medicine for fear of sleeping, though in waking he felt like a claw were taking his face off under his bandages and he screamed his throat raw. Eventually they held him down to feed him, and he heard the tears in his uncle's voice even as he felt the merciless strength in his hands. Zuko spat words because he had nothing else, I hate you don't touch me hate you hate you...

And then he was standing, whole and painless, his sight unburdened with bandages. The beginning of sunset streamed into the room, painting the room red and gold.

"So." He faced the man, slight and dark with eyes that gazed into an abyss. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

The man slumped to his knees as though his legs would no longer bear his weight. His hair covered his face as he bowed his head.

"The truth."

With those words the memory flooded back—this was the night before the Agni Kai. It was as though his own mind taunted him, trapping him in a remembrance worse than his nightmares.

"What?" His past-self, the cursed boy with two strong eyes and unburned face, tilted his head like a rabbiroo slow on the uptake. "What are you talking about, Shun?"

"From the first." Shun's hair shifted as he drew and released a breath. "From the first day I served you I was Princess Azula's spy."

Even now Zuko could feel the hand squeeze his heart, his head too light as he stumbled away from those words.

"That... that doesn't make any-"

"Can't you see, she sets traps for you and waits for you to stumble into them." Shun lifted his head, a wild look in his eyes. "She never discussed her plans with me but I can feel this is another one of them, it fits too well. She's playing you, trying to ensnare-"

"Why?" Zuko found himself shaking, and it wasn't even cold except for the icy hand in his chest.

"Why? Because you're her rival to the throne, I suppose, or-"

"No. Why did you start working for her?" Zuko took a step toward Shun. "What hold does she have over you, and why did you break it?"

"What does it matter? Say it was money, or women. It's not important."

"Yes, it is." Zuko aimed his hand at Shun's face, the beginning of heat wavering the air around it. "You promised me the truth. Who are you? Is your name even Shun?"

"Shun Li is probably dead." There was no hesitation in the answer, as though he had spent too much time thinking about it. "He disappeared while patrolling for the Colonial militia, most likely the earthbender resistance got him and he never saw daylight again. I always thought his name suited me."

"And you?" Zuko hardened his voice to keep it from breaking. "Who are you? Where are you from?"

The man who called himself Shun faltered. "I'm... I'm nothing. I come from nothing." When Zuko thrust his hand closer to his face, he went on: "The village where I was born is a Fire Nation colony, though I don't know which one. My mother called me Min, but if I had a father or a surname I don't remember."

"The Fire Nation drove your village out? Why?"

"Why do platypus-bears lay eggs?" Shun looked at him as though the question were strange. "It's what they do."

Zuko shook his head. "No. You're making this up. I don't know why, if Azula or someone else put you up to it, but I'm not falling for it."

"Which part should I change?"

"What?"

"Should I leave out the parts you don't like about Fire Nation soldiers? Or say I'm from the Colonies so you won't have to talk to some dirt peasant?" Shun's voice came through clenched teeth. "How do I make you believe I exist?"

The shame was hot in Zuko's face, even though the man was the one who was confessing to being a spy. For all Zuko knew he was lying, or mad.

"Go on." Zuko lowered his hand and closed it into a fist by his side. "Give me the truth as you know it, and I'll be the judge of what to believe."

"There's not much to tell. I bounced around a while, fell in with other kids-"

"You mentioned your mother."

Shun gave him a look, and for a moment Zuko expected to be given fifty repetitions of Form Three for interrupting him.

"Gone, when I was still a young one. It's a wonder it didn't happen sooner, with the conditions we were in." Shun frowned. "I was at a state orphanage when I heard the boys training to be soldiers got enough to eat, so I volunteered."

"Boys? How old were you?"

"Kuei Year Four, so I was maybe eight, nine."

Zuko recoiled. "The Earth Kingdom uses child soldiers?"

"Of course not." Shun rolled his eyes. "We were trainees and auxiliaries, and I didn't fight an actual battle until I was thirteen or fourteen."

"Thirteen! But that's-"

"That's war. The orphans your country makes have to go somewhere. Can I go on, or have you got more lectures for me on the evils of war?"

Zuko considered having his guards seize this man, this Earth Kingdom soldier by his own admission, drag him away like a dog and put him somewhere he would never have to see or think of him again.

_Somewhere like a grave? _asked a cold voice in his head. He swallowed back a sour taste in his mouth.

"A non-bender boy could do a lot worse than pick up a sword," Shun went on. "They still died in the camps, most them without ever seeing action, but I survived. When we were ready they put the best of us in an elite unit, the Regiment of the Flowering Tree." Reverence crept into his voice as he said the name.

"You're saying you fought the Fire Nation." Zuko pulled his mind back on track, grabbing at the pieces and trying to fit them together. Assuming the man was telling the truth, how did an Earth Kingdom soldier end up in the Fire Palace?

"We weren't benders, but it didn't matter. We were good at what we did, and with the earthbenders on our side we could do anything." Shun's face softened.

"We called ourselves brothers, and we were. A lot of us had the same surname, one they gave us because we were wards of the state. They were my comrades, my friends, my..." He closed his eyes briefly. "They were everything."

"And the Fire Nation killed them. Is that why you're here? For revenge?"

Shun looked surprised at the question. "We hated the ash-makers on principle, of course. I've killed them and lost friends to them, but if anything I understood them. At least they fought us to our faces."

Zuko waited, sensing that Shun needed no more prompting.

"When Azulon sent his forces into Hu Xin we fought them four times at Zhai Pass and won every time. We took our losses, but we could tell the enemy was getting tired, too. And we had the Eight Pillars of Hu Xin on our side."

"The Eight Pillars." The name touched off a memory.

"The best group of earthbenders in the Western Earth Kingdoms. They had the powers of ten benders each on their own, but together they could move mountains. With them on our side we knew we couldn't lose."

"But my grandfather conquered Hu Xin."

"Yes." Shun's gaze fell blank, a familiar look, and Zuko had a feeling he was getting closer to some darkness at the core. _Turn away. Turn away!_

"Tell me."

"Our fifth battle at Zhai Pass." Shun spoke as though dreaming. "Azulon poured all his remaining strength into that fight, men, beasts, machines. Our intelligence indicated we could break the back of the invasion if we won the day.

"The assault was relentless, though, and the Flowering Trees guarded the rear of the retreat as we fell back. It looked like the Fire Nation would finally take Zhai Pass that day. But then..." He bent forward, a hand trembling against the floor. "When the regular forces escaped to safety, the earthbenders walled off the eastern end of the Pass. Our regiment was trapped with the enemy with no way out."

"Why… would they do that?" He did not want to hear more, should not have heard.

"To bury us." The words tore from Shun's throat. "We were the bait to lure the the Fire Nation forces. We tried to climb out while the rocks fell in, but they struck us down to our grave. What could we have done? We weren't benders. They buried us alive with our enemies."

"But you said you were an elite regiment! Why would they throw you away like-" like the Forty-First Division?

"You have to understand. People without hometown and family in the Earth Kingdom… the regulars called us the Rootless, the Orphan Corps, and- other names not fit to repeat." Shun looked away, his face flushing.

"Fire Nation commanders saw it the way you did, though. They thought they were safe in the Pass with us. And the situation in Hu Xin was... complicated. Our commander might have known the wrong people, maybe planned to turn the sword against its master."

"That's…" barbaric? The word caught in his throat. _No meat like fresh meat._

"I don't want you to think we were harmless victims. I did terrible things and didn't know how terrible they were. Maybe they were right to destroy us, I just wish..." Shun covered his face with a hand and lowered it after a long moment. "I wish they hadn't missed."

"How did you survive?" Zuko's voice was hoarse, as though he had inhaled smoke.

"Blind luck. A slab of rock propped over me and kept me from being crushed. When it was over I tried to- I looked for-"

Zuko noticed a scratching sound and looked down to see Shun's fingers, bent like claws, moving back and forth as though he were trying to dig into the floor. Shun noticed his gaze and the hand went slack.

"My head wasn't right. I went through the western end of the Pass, the Fire Nation side, because th'other way was closed. The skullheads caught me, but later they said I'd killed a few of them first before I went down." His shoulder twitched. "I don't know why. Must have been the red uniforms set me off."

Zuko felt a chill go through him: Shun had spent the better part of a year surrounded by red uniforms.

"The Lord of Hu Xin was hunting down survivors from my regiment. The Fire Nation had most of us that weren't dead, and they made noises about handing us over in a prisoner exchange. We made them a deal instead."

"What deal?"

"We told the Fire Nation commander we would cut down the Eight Pillars of Hu Xin." Shun's eyes gleamed. "In payment for our comrades' lives."

Zuko drew back from Shun. "You betrayed your country!"

"Not until it betrayed me. And the Fire Nation commander was happy to help. They'd tried everything else to get Hu Xin, why not assassination?"

"And you... you did this?"

"Yes." There was no mistaking the bite of satisfaction in his voice. "The Fire Nation helped, but so did rivals, warlords, criminals, a jealous husband. Whatever we could get. We tumbled five of the Pillars, and by then there wasn't enough left to resist Azulon when he marched in."

"But they were still just five earthbenders." Could the mighty province of Hu Xin have been undone by a few assassinations?

"These men were more than earthbenders. They were noblemen and generals, from the oldest lines of the earth-blooded. But feed them steel through the belly and they died like other men." Shun's eyes reddened with tears he refused to shed. "When they started falling, Hu Xin broke apart in confusion."

Zuko let out a breath. If the man's story was a lie, its purpose was subtler than he could hope to grasp.

"In the end the only way Hu Xin could shatter was from the inside, and I was one of the cracks." Shun sounded calm now, resigned.

"It's been five years since Hu Xin was conquered. When did you come to the Fire Nation?"

"'Come' might not be the best word. I was captured."

Zuko's eyebrows shot up. "Captured?"

"I traveled after Hu Xin fell. We still had that ash-maker blood money, and there were fewer of us left to share it. I tried being other things, a farmer, a merchant. Some of my friends settled down, but I didn't know how. A year and a half ago I went back to Hu Xin as a caravan guard."

"How was it?" Zuko squared his shoulders as though bracing for a blow, though why should he care what an admitted Earth Kingdom traitor thought of his grandfather's rule?

"Not so different in some ways. In some ways, better. But I saw things I couldn't forget, and I felt responsible. So I decided to balance things out."

"Balance." Somehow the word made Zuko go cold all over.

"I started with the Lieutenant Governor. Then the General of the occupying forces, an old friend. Some militiamen, probably men much like the real Shun Li was. I don't know what I thought I was achieving, but putting on the mask felt right. And I didn't know what else to do with myself."

"The mask." Zuko started. "You were the Red Spirit! They said he was part of the earthbender resistance." "Oh, you've heard of me?" Shun looked pleased. "No, I operated alone. Any resistance group would have killed me once they knew me, and I wouldn't work with earthbenders anyway."

"So you were captured at Hu Xin."

"A little over a year ago. I fell for their trap, thought I could get the Governor himself. I spent some time in a Fire Nation prison where neither the guards nor the prisoners liked me very much. I thought I was going to die in that hole." His eyes went blank before he recovered. "Then one day, a transfer. I thought I was going to Ba Sing Se, but I came here instead."

"Azula."

Shun nodded. "She knew you were hiring colonials, and thought I could pass as one. She offered me my freedom if I did my job well enough, and I'll admit I was curious about the country that shaped my life. It wasn't like I had much choice."

Zuko took a step back, trying to center himself. There was just one more question left, maybe the one he had been avoiding by asking the others.

"You know what's funny, sir?"

"What?" Zuko was glad enough to be distracted while he worked up his courage.

"The Fire Nation. It's the kindest, gentlest, most beautiful place I could have imagined. I just don't..." something behind the man's face crumpled. "How could men like Master Lu have planned this war? How could men like Khoujin burn my village down?"

Zuko had no answer to that, and did not know if he ever would. The mention of Master Lu and Khoujin, however, lit the spark in his chest that he needed to get the words out.

"I have a question, too. When we were outside Haishan, did you," he took a breath, "did you tell Azula where we were?"

Shun straightened his back and looked up to meet Zuko's eyes. "Yes."


	44. Chapter 19: Voices 2 of 5

"Sir, we are entering range."

"Maintain course." Ji stood at the prow with his hands clasped behind his back, the sea spray relieving some of the heaviness in his head.

At the edges of his sight he could see the _Spark of the Forge_ and the _Ember Island _off starboard and port. Up ahead were others in the fleet, _Sozin's Comet_ and _Azure Inferno _and _Dragon's Rampage_ and more bearing down on Beiyang like steel shackles.

The first specks appeared in the air as the blur on the horizon grew into the shape of a shoreline.

"Incoming!" The lookout's shout was almost a scream.

"Full speed ahead!" Ji looked to either side to make sure the rest of the line was keeping pace.

The first of the rocks hurled from Beiyang's catapults, no doubt with help from their earthbenders, crashed into the ocean less than a hundred feet before the ship's prows. The wave of impact slapped the hull like a giant hand.

The rush of wind from the _Firebrand's_ passage hit him full in the face, threatening to flatten his topknot. The second round of catapult missiles rose into the air like a flock of birds and then arced in, growing rapidly larger. The entire ship seemed to lean forward, speed the only thing on its mind of steel and flame.

Shadows chased each other over the deck for a moment that was an eternity. Ji spun around, following the missiles' course. He saw one dip behind the stern and then another, heard the splashes and the cheers of the crew. The deck rocked under his feet, and he knew the second round had passed them by.

Shouts of alarm rose down the line, damage reports flying, but Commander Chan's _Ember Island_ gave the signal to advance with both flags pointed forward.

Ji felt his shoulders tighten. Before long they would be in earthbending range and the rocks would start flying right over the water and not just in predictable arcs. No one knew their exact range, reports in the heat of battle being what they were. Studies on captured earthbenders had all ended badly, to no sane person's surprise.

The first line of ships began to fire back with cluster bombs and grenades loaded on the catapults. The explosives kicked up sand and rock on impact, but through his spyglass Ji watched earthbenders throw up walls to catch most of them. He saw a few sending dun-clad soldiers scrambling for cover, and a body went flying like a doll from another. They could not win by firefight at this distance, though. The invasion force would have to land in order to take out the fortifications and defensive positions.

Ji panned his spyglass over the beach, getting queasier with each new sight. There had to be at least a dozen earthbenders, each looking like he could take on scores of soldiers without even needing to fling around rocks the size of houses. Metal gleamed where trained warriors waited; around them the outlines of war machines and forts pushed at the sky. Upside-down cones of sand swirled in place, announcing the presence of sandbender mercenaries.

He lowered the glass because he could not bear to look anymore. The recruits wetting their pants down in the hold were just a bunch of kids. He hoped High Command knew what they were doing, because he sure as the Sea Witch's knickers didn't.

The ships plowed on and the catapult fire kept hitting, dropping into the water or crushing a deck or a superstructure. Was it just the closer range, or were the missiles moving on their own? At one point a rock took off the top of the _Dragonbane's _control tower, and the ship's crew scurried to contain the damage and take away the wounded_. _Ji told himself it was only his imagination that the missile had changed direction midair.

"On the water! They're coming in over the water!"

Ji jerked his gaze down to see rocks jumping across the ocean surface like enormous badger-frogs, throwing up a splash taller than a man on each leap. For a disorienting moment he saw the pebbles he had used to throw at the stream behind his house, trying to get them to skip.

The ships in front swerved to avoid the rhino-sized projectiles, and Ji winced at the metallic whine as the vessels collided into each other, slowing down the entire advance. Of course, when a front-line ship was successful at dodging a skipping "pebble" it became the next ship's problem. One such problem was bearing down past the _Fire Lily _toward the _Firebrand_.

"Hard to starboard!" He raised his voice to be heard over the commotion. The helmsman Dou gaped over his shoulder at him, and no wonder, since his captain was ordering him to swerve _toward_ the skipping rock and not away from it. Yet Dou's hands were already moving, good man, swinging the _Firebrand_ around toward _Spark of the Forge_ to starboard_. _

Ji turned with his ship to look at _Spark. _He had no time to signal it but if her captain caught his drift-

His heart lifted when the _Spark of the Forge_ swerved to port toward the _Firebrand_. The rock struck the _Firebrand _on the starboard hull with a vibration that jarred Ji's teeth. But at that moment the _Spark_ came hard alongside the _Firebrand, _and the rock caught between the two hulls before it could do further damage.

The crew of both ships cheered while Ji let out a long breath. He exchanged nods with the _Spark's _captain and they turned almost at the same time to their helmsmen, ordering the separation. As the two ships separated, the earthbenders' little gift dropped into the sea with a splash that rocked both ships. The crew exchanged congratulations and banter from deck to deck in a moment of much-needed festivity.

He was about to order his ship to resume course when he realized the advance ships were slowing. "What's going on here?"

"The _Phoenix Flame, _sir!"

Ji watched, his stomach sinking, as the Imperator-class warship in the front listed like a man who had one cup too many. Moon and tides, they were already losing ships and for what? To deliver packs of schoolboys—and schoolgirls—to enemies who would crush them without a thought?

"New orders from the _Ember Island!_"

He read the signal flags himself before the chief announced it. Full stop, release transports, and return to port.

"Release the transports?" A catapult-hurled rock plumed into the water off the port, drowning out his voice. Ji looked around, hoping this was a joke or a mistake, but even as he watched the ships were opening their bay doors to slide out the motorized landers that would take the Forty-first the rest of the way to shore.

The rest of the way to shore, facing catapult fire and bending-powered projectiles without the protection of steel ships or even backup fire from the fleet.

The recruits of the Forty-first might as well swim ashore naked.

The water between the fleet and the shore was thick with the long boats from the advance vessels, speeding like a school of fragile fish to their destination. Ji watched, unable to look away, while a sandstorm caught up several transports at once and threw them into the air. A flat rock skimmed over the water, capsizing five transports without stopping. A catapult missile, aimed high now that the targets were closer, fell from the sky to crush a transport into the water. Ji forced his gaze away before he could see what surfaced after the impact.

"They're on the shore!" "Look!" There was hope in the men's calls, and sure enough Ji could see the dots of men crawling onto the beach or stumbling from their transports. It must be the first wave from the _Phoenix Flame, _which was now going down while the others stayed clear of its wake.

He put his spyglass to his eye, and then gripped it so hard he thought he might break it. It was either that or throw it into the water, because the ragged bands on the beach were being sucked into the sand even while they scrambled to get away or raised their hands in surrender. A flying rock swept others from the beach into the water.

Ji squeezed his eyes shut and lowered the glass, willing himself not to look at the water between the fleet and the beach. He had seen worse in battle, but what was the point in these losses?

The assault on the fleet had stopped, which meant the full might of Beiyang's defenses had fallen on the landing force. Soon the third row of advance would have to stop and the_ Firebrand_ would be ordered to release her own transports. He had to keep himself from retching at the thought.

"Captain!"

He turned to face the marines running across the deck toward him.

"Sir, permission to make landing with the Forty-First." The marine sergeant at their head had a wild look in his eyes. Ji wondered if he himself looked the same, and tried to close his face off.

"I'm guessing Lieutenant Wu said no?" They did not answer, and did not need to. The _Firebrand's_ Chief of Security would never allow his marines to come to harm for no gain. So why was High Command allowing it?

He grit his teeth. "Permission denied. Return to your positions."

"Sir, these kids're going to die out there and you know it." Zanzen stepped up from behind his sergeant, removing his mask. "At least with us leading they might have half a chance."

"I can't allow that. Return to your position now or-"

The marines started swearing all at once, but they were not looking at their captain but past him. Some of them ran past him to cling to the railing at the bow, hurling down abuse. Ji spun around and knew at once what had enflamed them.

The _Fire Lily _up ahead had opened its bay to reveal the pandemonium in its belly. The recruits were begging and screaming, some of them trying to escape their transports. Bursts of flame and fire whips licked across the gloom of the hold, pushing the men and women—boys and girls—into the motorboats or straight into the water.

"By the Ice Gorge of hell." Ji realized he was gripping the railing right alongside his marines.

"Sir, we have the signal for full stop."

Ji watched the transports from the _Lily_ speed away, driven shoreward by the looming threat of the warships behind them. The first line of ships, their human cargo discharged, was peeling away back to the port of Anhai.

"Captain, please." Zanzen looked pale.

The blasted kid didn't know, none of them knew a thing. What choice did he have? If he refused to release the transports they would throw him in the brig and find someone who would.

_Maybe I saw a dragon._

The girl hadn't seen a waterlogged thing, because there were no dragons anymore. He would not lose everything because of some long-dead dream, not after working so long and so hard to stand where he was standing.

_Twenty-three years of my life._

He looked over his shoulder at his men who looked to him in this moment suspended outside time.

_Half a lifetime at sea, and what have I got to show for it?_

His ship swayed on the waves, and he stood the straighter for it. He clasped his hands behind himself, throwing his shoulders back with the pride that belonged to every sailor in the Firelord's own Navy.

_I earned my own ship, my own command. Captain of the _Firebrand, _and no man can take that from me._

"Belay the order." He felt a great weakness and a great calm with those words, as though a fever had broken. "Master Dou, set a course for Anhai."

"Sir." The helmsman complied, his hands sure even as his eyes questioned.

"Captain, what about the transports?"

"We have a problem with the bay doors. They won't open." Ji's lips peeled back. "In fact, signal the _Ember Island_ that we are reporting back to port for emergency repairs."

He didn't know how long Commander Chan would buy it, but the Captain Chan he had known was a good man. He might close his eyes for a little while so at least one shipful of recruits might escape this furnace.

That only left the rest of the armada to get through.

He turned to the marines, who stared as though he had grown a platypus-bear beak. He certainly felt that way.

"Return to your positions. Our young friends in the Forty-First won't be landing today, not while I'm standing."

"Sir." They saluted him and scattered away, confusion on their young faces.

"I just hope it's smooth sailing from here." He kept his gaze on the steel forms of the ships they passed.

* * *

A _boom_ reverberated through the ship, sending their steel world sloshing around. Most of the recruits had given up on standing and clutched at the hull, the deck, and each other to keep themselves in place. The acid smell of someone's vomit drifted in the closed space.

"Another hit?" Little Jiang, the carpenter's grandson whose head and shoulders rose above the group, peered at the overhead of the hold where the lights of the remaining torches didn't reach. "Don't these people ever give up?"

"Technically we're deserters. They're supposed to bring us to justice." Yenzi sat looking down at the steel deck.

"Oh, that's so helpful." Her friend Sengmi rolled her eyes from where she sat hugging her knees, their knobby angles pushing through the fabric of her uniform.

The ship picked up speed as they spoke, sailing in a zigzag that sent the bodies in the hold sliding like sand in the creases of cloth. Catapult fire struck from time to time, shaking the hold while great splashes struck the hull below. The words "evasive maneuver" rippled through the huddled recruits like a prayer.

"Ugh." Yenzi held herself upright with her hands on either side. "The man may be trying to save our lives, but right now I kind of wish I were dead."

"That is why he's doing this, right?" Sengmi chewed on her index finger. "To save us?"

"If he's selling us and the ship to the Earth Kingdom, he's taking the long way."

Sengmi glared at her, but before she could say anything a hush fell over the recruits. The ship slowed, and the quiet pressed in. They all flinched when a thump came from the starboard side, not a focused impact but a nudge with something vast behind it.

* * *

He watched the peaks and towers rising over the sea, stark in their cold-burning whites and frozen blues. The _Firebrand_ drifted among the icebergs, her engine output minimal as she moved only enough to keep a safe distance from the deadly masses of ice.

He recognized his first mate Lieutenant Mo's footfall on the deck behind him. "Any sign of pursuit?"

"None so far, sir. We appear to have lost them."

Ji turned to him. "Good, let's keep it that way. We'll head into the thick of the ice."

"Aye, sir." But Mo lingered a moment, and Ji saw his own fear reflected in his first mate's face.

"You have permission to speak freely, Lieutenant."

"Forgive me, Captain, but where do we go from here? We may be able to keep hidden from the Navy a while, but afterward..." Mo spread his hands in a helpless gesture.

Ji nodded; it was a fair question. "My intention is to keep the _Firebrand_ concealed as long as we can, maybe half a day until the assault on Beiyang is over. The Pass should help us do that." He knew the plan was far from perfect, but once the pursuit was on and it became clear they would not make it to Anhai, heading north had been the only way he could think of.

"And then, sir?"

"And then we surrender to His Majesty's Navy." The chilled air of the North touched his chest. _Twenty-three years of my life._

"Captain." Mo's salute was as reverent, Ji thought, as one given to an officer fallen in battle.

"Captain Ji!"

Something about the stridency of the call, and the pound of feet on metal, had Ji going into firebending stance even as he turned.

He recognized his officers emerging from the command tower, the Chiefs of Security, Weapons, Supplies and their junior officers and enlisted men. Two marines ran forward to stand in their path. Before Ji could react, a young ensign at the head of the column knocked them both down with a plume of fire.

The main body of the men loomed larger and larger in view while a few stayed behind to secure the marines. In a blink Ji found himself and Mo surrounded in a half-circle. Beyond the cordon of men the sailors on deck looked on, frozen as though by the cold. _They don't know which way to turn, _Ji thought.

"This is a mutiny, I take it." Ji looked from man to man, his hands out and ready to unleash fire.

"Call it what you wish." The most senior man in the group, Lieutenant Wu of Security, stepped forward. The flecks of white in his whiskers matched the setting, as though he had been snowed on. "We are here to relieve you of dutyon account of insubordination_._"

"I'll be permanently relieved of duty, soon enough." The emptiness gripped his insides. "You will have my surrender and pledge of honor not to escape or hinder you, in exchange for your word that you will wait until sundown before contacting the Navy." The assault on Beiyang should be over by then, and in any case they could not last much longer out here.

"The Fire Navy does not negotiate with traitors." The ensign who had knocked down the two marines cut in, a vindictive glow in his eyes. "Surrender now or face the consequences."

Recognition kicked in then. "Choi, was it? I did not know you without seaweed in your hair."

The boy turned the color of carrot-beets and seemed about to lash out when Wu cut him off with a curt gesture. "Ensign, this is no place for you to speak." He turned to the enlisted men by his side. "Escort Captain Ji to his quarters."

"And if Captain Ji will not be escorted?"

Wu sighed. "I respected you, Captain; perhaps I still do. I do not wish you to suffer any more indignity than you must, after a long and distinguished career."

He felt his teeth grind together. "Your point?"

"You can stall all you like, but the marines are not coming to help you. They would have come already if they could."

"If you've hurt them..." His voice came ragged, and his fire begged to be set free.

Wu recoiled, the very suggestion repugnant to him. "These men are under my command. They are confined by my order and no more."

Again Ji believed him, if only because the commotion of a struggle would have alerted the deck. Confinement on a false order by their superior officer made better sense.

Ji lowered his hands, the arctic wind cooling his sweat.

"Thank you, sir." Wu gestured the enlisted men forward.

Ji followed them off the deck, and said nothing when he heard Wu order a signal flare to be launched. He had nothing to say and less to do; his actions had wrought enough harm for a lifetime, let alone a day.

* * *

_When I open my eyes, _thought Zuko, _I will be back in bed. _He longed for the pain and the fever-dreams, and promised to wake himself by the heat of wanting.

Instead he heard his own voice: "That's not true."

He opened his eyes not to one of his anxious watchers but to Shun's kneeling form and upturned face.

"It is true. Master Lu tried to protect you, but he was using my hawk and all I had to do was slip in the true-"

"You're lying." Zuko turned away, his hands clenching. "I order you to tell me you're lying!"

"Prince Zuko." He heard Shun rise behind him. "What earthly reason do I have to lie about this?"

"Why would you do that?" Zuko spun to face him, noticing only dimly the fire coming to his hands. "You fought for me at Tamalan. At Haishan! You taught me how to use the dao!"

"Why?" Shun repeated the question to himself. "Because I watched you save that little village, and I saw how you acted when the townsfolk told you what the war is doing to your country. I saw the look in your people's eyes when they saw you. And I feel the same."

"I don't- I don't know what you're-"

"I betrayed the Earth Kingdom and I fought the Fire Nation, but I was never a subject of Earth or Fire." Shun came closer, and Zuko backed away from him. "My country was always the war. But you can end it, make sure there are no more men like me."

"Then why did you betray me?" Zuko's voice came out a broken wail. "Why not come to me first?"

"Why did Princess Azula choose me to play the spy?" The question sounded old, as though he had posed it to himself many times. "I have no recourse. It is death for me to be here, and treason for you to shelter me. I needed her silence so I could serve you undivided, just once in my life for a cause I could believe-"

"Didn't you think what would happen? What she might do?"

"If she did have ill intentions, I could keep you from coming to harm." Shun's voice sank to a whisper. "And I did."

"Men died that night." His heart pounded the breath out of him. "People were hurt."

"Men die in war. They swore to give their lives for yours, didn't they?"

"Yes, but..." His sight blurred, then cleared as the tears slid from his eyes. _Stupid crybaby._

"If there is any meaning in the freedom I won, it is to protect you." Shun knelt before Zuko once more. "This plan with the Forty-First fits too well, as if cut to your weakness and mine. I sense her hand in this; do not go through with the Agni Kai."

"Get out of my sight." Zuko swept a hand out on the last word, letting the fire out in a rush of relief.

Shun tensed to fling himself out of the way, then narrowed his eyes and held still. The fire hit him full on and knocked him flat, flames in his hair and clothes.

"What are you doing?" Zuko threw out frantic hands to dispel the flames. "Why didn't you get out of the way?"

"Prince Zuko," came a voice outside the door. "Your Highness, is everything all right?"

"Stay out!" He swiped a hand across his eyes.

"My prince." Shun rose only to prostrate himself again. "I didn't confess to ask for your forgiveness. I don't want it! But whatever happens to me, let it be as your man. Name whatever punishment. I will fall on my sword, crawl on hands and knees to Ba Sing Se. If my service these past months means anything at all-"

"I can't punish you." Zuko sank his face into his hands. "I can't look at you!"

"Prince Zuko, we're coming in." The door opened to admit his guards. "Did Guardsman Shun displease you? Should we remove him?"

"Yes. Yes, get him out of here."

"Betrayer and killer I may be." Shun rose to his feet, his jaw tense. The guards gaped at him. "But you can't deny I'm a part of you."

Zuko stared past him. "I don't know you. You lied to me every day you stood by me."

Shun flinched as though struck, and Zuko felt the tears threaten again. Stupid, weak...

"Look, Guardsman." A guard sergeant put a hand on Shun's arm. "Whatever the misunderstanding is, I'm sure it'll clear up. Come with us and-"

"You hypocritical little boy." Eyes bright as though with fever, Shun stepped past the sergeant toward Zuko. "Don't you dare run from me!"

"Hold him!" The guards grabbed him on either side, and Shun did not try to resist. "Your Highness, should we take him to the Imperial Investigators? What is his crime?"

"Be here all night if you want to count 'em." Shun made a choking sound. "Why don't we start with my first raid on a Fire settlement? I'll tell you what we did there, in intimate detail."

"No, don't imprison him." _It is death for me to be here. Must have been the red uniforms set me off. _"Don't hurt him, just get him out of the palace." He knew it was safer to kill the man, even kinder, but some part of him refused the solution. He really was a cowardly little boy.

"Don't let me see you again." He addressed himself to the man he had known as Shun. "If I do I'll-" he gritted his teeth and turned his head away. "If I see you again, you'll die!"

"It was an honor, Prince Zuko." The answering voice was gentle. "The only honor I have known."

And Zuko tried not to, but he found himself watching as his guards led the man out, and he closed his throat against the false and familiar name.

A splitting pain came to his face. He found an obstruction in his sight and tore at it. This was the last time he would lay eyes on that murderer, the traitor, and these stupid bandages were in his face and he couldn't see-

"Prince Zuko!" Hands grabbed his own and pulled them away from his face. "Prince Zuko, it's okay."

Back in the smell of fear and sickness, Zuko tried to focus his gaze on the source of the voice. "Shun?"

"It's Sa Ye." Her face floated into view as she gave his hands a squeeze. "You're going to be all right."


	45. Chapter 19: Voices 3 of 5

"Are they gone?"

Lijin peered around a corner at the darkened street. The footfalls and the frightened voices faded as he listened, and then the silence returned and all was still again.

"Yeah, the guards just arrested those ladies." He drew back and turned to Zhimao and Taki who stood with him in the shadow of the alley. "They've gone down to the jail. Let's go."

He walked out of the alleyway into the street where every shadow looked like a waiting guardsman. After a few moments he heard his friends follow, their feet shuffling on the pavement and their breathing shallow. Maybe they wouldn't notice Lijin's own hands were sweating. The bow in his hand felt almost too heavy to hold onto.

They scampered down the street looking every which way, arguing in whispers about the direction. They were lost twice among shops and twisting alleys, and once had to hide in a gutter while the city guard passed by.

Finally, as the moon tipped past the walls, they found their way to the South Bend where sagging buildings rubbed up against the city walls.

"There it is." Taki pointed up at the torch-lit outline against the night sky. It looked something like a bottle with the neck cut off, if bottles were built from stone and stood taller than men.

"The signal beacon." Lijin's heart beat faster. He reached over his shoulder to take an arrow from the quiver on his back. It felt clumsy with the cloth wound around its head, the smell of tar thick in his nose.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Taki twisted in place as though he had to go pee. "The beacon belongs to the military, you know. I don't want to go to jail."

"Taki, both my parents are in jail." Lijin glared at the signal beacon, trying to figure out the angle to get the arrow in the side opening. "And your brother, and Zhimao's uncle and cousins. We're doing this to save them."

Just then booted feet sounded on the wall, and they all froze. They crouched down and waited while the patrolling guardsman passed above them.

When all was quiet again Lijin stood up and nocked the arrow to his bow. He angled up so the arrow would fly high and then fall into the little window at the side of the beacon.

Master Shang had said lighting a signal beacon would alert the Southeast Garrison so someone would come investigate. The soldiers would come stop what was happening, make them let Mom and Dad go.

"Light it, Zhimao." He had to grit his teeth to keep his voice from shaking.

Zhimao dragged in a breath and brought his hands up before his chest, then pushed one hand forward with the palm facing up. A flame kindled in his open hand, and he held it under the cloth-wrapped tip of the arrow.

Lijin flinched and had to bite back a cry when the fire blazed up at the arrow's end. It was too hot, too close and he couldn't see-

_-the world was fire, reaching out its hungry hands toward him while he cowered and tried to pull air into his lungs, but nothing came but ashes and fire. Through its crackling came the _whish_ and _thwack _of an arrow striking flesh, and a woman's cry of pain. _Mom,_ he thought. _Yenzi. _He screamed so he would not hear._

_"Lijin! Tien Lijin!" The burning brush rustled aside and fire swept away, though it returned again and again. "Answer me!"_

_Maybe he had called out. A hand reached through the fire and pulled. He held on and clawed away from the clinging bush until it was dark and he could breathe smokeless air, the sweetest thing he ever tasted._

_"Lijin, are you all right?" Ming held him at arm's length, looking into his face, but he couldn't answer. The arrow in right shoulder looked like it was the only thing pinning her limp arm to her body. Her entire right side was slick and black in the flickering night._

_Past her a lump of shadow lay crumpled on the ground, wooden shafts sticking out of him like a boarcupine with most of its quills plucked. Against his will he put a name to what he saw: _Khoujin.

"Lijin!"

"You okay?"

He realized he was on the ground, cold with sweat. Smoke stung his eyes, and he looked stupidly down at the blackened cloth of the fire arrow in his hand. He must have dashed it out on the ground.

"I can't." He looked up at Taki and Zhimao. The sky above them spun, and he felt like he was going to throw up. "We have to go." He pulled himself to his feet, trying to keep his knees from unlocking.

"Go where?" Zhimao caught his sleeve. "You said we had to-"

"I'm going home." Lijin snatched his arm away, swaying from the force of it. The bow and arrow weighed him down, and he let go of them like they were burning. "I can't do it."

"But what about my uncle? And your parents!" Zhimao looked from the things on the ground to Lijin, but Lijin had no time for him. He had to go—somewhere. Anywhere that wasn't here.

"One of the older boys or girls can do it." A laugh burst out of him. "What was I thinking? We're just kids. It's not like we can save grownups." Even tall, strong men ended up discarded like broken toys, not moving and not talking—forever.

"The older boys might have been arrested by now." Taki's voice was quiet. "A lot of them were sent to the army, and you've heard what's going to happen to them."

A fire clawed at Lijin's stomach. _Yenzi._

"And if more beacons light up, the soldiers at the garrison are going to be more suspicious." Taki bent down to pick up the bow and arrow Lijin had dropped. "They'll set my big brother free sooner."

Taki fumbled to hold the arrow to the bow and pulled the bowstring back, trying to keep his grip on the arrow. "Come on, Zhimao."

"Uh..." Zhimao looked between the two of them.

"You never studied archery." Lijin couldn't understand how Taki could do it. His own hands were slippery with sweat at the thought of hearing the the twang of a bowstring and the thud of the arrow striking true.

"It's better than knowing how to shoot and being too scared to." Taki's eyes flashed as he looked over his shoulder at Lijin. "Now, Zhimao!"

And maybe it was annoyance, because Taki was a squeaky little coward who had to be dragged into anything the least bit adventurous, and maybe it was the way he held the bow like he was going to start hitting someone with it. When Lijin looked at the position of Taki's shoulders and arms and saw the arrow wasn't going to get much farther than his feet, somehow the clammy darkness that pressed on his shoulders didn't seem so important anymore.

"Give it back. You're holding it all wrong." Lijin shouldered Taki out of the way and snatched the bow out of his hands.

He drew a fresh arrow, prepared with tar, from over his shoulder and thought of nothing but what he was doing in the moment. Feet apart at shoulder width, arrow on the rest, nock on the bowstring, the tip facing the beacon except further up because it would have to hit on the downward arc, pull the bowstring back to his ear, elbow above his shoulder. He paused, and the world paused with him.

"Now?" Half of Zhimao's face was lit with another fire in his hand.

"Now."

The arrow flared up and the moment tried to slip away again, but Lijin held tight to the heat of the fire and the bite of the smoke and, most of all, the tension of the creaking wood in his hand. The bowstring pulled on his fingers and the target waited beyond the end of his arrow.

_Take care of Mom and Dad._

He loosed the string, and the arrow flew from him in a fiery arc. A breathless moment later it struck the stone of the beacon with a _tak _and sputtered out. The shouts of alarmed men sounded in the night.

"The guards are coming." Zhimao raised his voice above the running feet. "Let's go!"

"No." Lijin pulled out and nocked another arrow in one motion. That one was close, really close. He should have compensated for the wind. "One more time!"

"Lijin-" Taki sounded like he might cry.

"NOW, Zhimao!" She had asked him to take care of their parents. It might be one of the last things she ever said to him.

Zhimao shot a stream of flame at the arrow tip, and it burned as if to melt his face. Lijin liked it that way. Maybe it would clean away all the bad memories and tear apart the darkness that kept him from Mom and Dad, and his only sister in the whole world who had to come home so they could be a family again.

The arrow was alive in his hands, burning with its need to fly. So he let it. A breathless moment, and then the fire whooshed up from the beacon and rushed up to light the sky, its brightness blurry through his tears.

"Come on, we have to go." Zhimao pulled him into a run away from booted footfalls. Lijin followed stumbling and swaying like a boy made of rubber.

"Did you see that?" Taki's voice piped with delight. "Sparking!"

Lijin remembered to stop and toss his bow and quiver into a gutter, and he told Zhimao to set the archery gear on fire. He didn't want to be caught with weapons in hand, and he wasn't about to shoot at anyone.

They ran together into the night streets for safety, wherever "safe" might be. When Lijin looked back the beacon had been extinguished with a cloud of smoke hovering thin against the night.

Still, he hoped someone at the Southeast Garrison had seen. They had done all they could; there was nothing left except to hope.

* * *

The three boys followed each other into the street at a run, then came one by one to a skidding stop.

"And where are you children going?" A red-robed figure stood blocking their way, an armed guard on either side.

"Inspector Shang." The flat voice belonged to the middle of the three boys. His hair was cropped close to his head and burn scars shone on his face when the fretful light fell on it.

"Young Tien Lijin." Shang gave a nod. "It's good to see you again, but I should tell you that you are in violation of curfew."

"We're trying to get home." The tallest of the boys backed away from Shang and the guards, casting a glance over his shoulder the way he came.

"Were you and your friends playing outside, Zhimao?" As Shang spoke more guards came up from behind the boys, trapping them. The tall boy, Zhimao, took a firebending stance. "There was rather a large commotion during the day, I doubt it was a good time to be outdoors."

"We don't know anything!" The shortest of the three boys squeaked like a rabbitmouse. "Please sir, I just want to go home."

"You will go home, of course." Shang gestured to the guards. "But first, you will need to come with us. The streets are not safe, and we would appreciate your cooperation in a case of illegal interference with a military installation."

The boys clustered in a back-to-back triangle as the guards closed in. Lijin clutched with his right hand as though for a weapon, and sparks appeared in Zhimao's hands.

"Is this really the way you wish it to be, Inspector?" The voice, soft as aged paper, cut through the commotion. Shang and the boys all stiffened in recognition as an old man emerged from a side street.

"Master Shang!" The boys looked at him in wild hope, as though the stooped man could stand against five armed guardsmen and an Imperial Investigator.

"Master Shang Chi." Inspector Shang crossed his arms.

"Inspector Shang Hun." The cloth merchant nodded. "Nephew."

"What are you doing here, Uncle? I don't need to tell you, I could arrest you for being on the streets."

"I was looking for you, of course." Master Shang put his hands in his sleeves. "I heard you were looking for the leaders of the demonstration."

"Oh, like I need any more trouble with Father, now you want me to put you in prison." The younger man's eyes glittered in suspicion. "Would this have anything to do with the signal beacon that went up?"

"You were always a bright boy." The elder Shang beamed. "I taught you myself, I know better than anyone."

"You think the Southeast garrison is going to come galloping in to save you all. I always said a traitor's kinsman had no business in public office."

Master Shang laughed, a sound surprising in its richness. "But you are _my_ kinsman. Would you resign your position?"

"I'm nothing like you and your Pai Sho friends." Inspector Shang gestured at the boys who watched petrified, sweeping his arm wide to encompass the darkened city. "I don't make trouble and put people at risk, and I don't manipulate children for my own ends."

"You're the one who was talking to my sister." Lijin lunged at Shang, but his friends caught him before he could run into the guards. "What did you say to her? What did you make her do?!"

"Don't you dare blame the Forty-First on me." The Inspector looked from his uncle to Lijin. "They were a danger to themselves here, I just wanted them out of the way before things boiled over. And it's all a lie, anyway!" He spun to face Master Shang. "If they were sacrificed, it was for a reason. We don't throw Fire Nation lives away."

"I hope you are right." Master Shang's head bowed in weariness. "In the meantime, these boys are no threat to the public order. Let them go."

The glimmer of eyes in Inspector Shang's face disappeared as he closed them. When he opened them he was calmer. "Take Master Shang into custody."

The guards left the boys to surround the old man. Shang smiled at the boys through the gaps in the armored forms.

"Go on home, children. Taki, will you take Lijin with you to your mother?"

"I will, sir."

"Lijin, I will get word to your parents that you are safe. You will see them again soon."

One of the guards took out shackles, but Inspector Shang knocked his arm aside.

"Are you so incompetent, Jiang, that the five of you can't handle one old man? He surrendered himself, in case you are incapable of grasping the concept."

While the indignant guard sergeant sputtered, Master Shang inclined his head. "You are kind, Inspector. I will go of my own volition, of course."

"And you." Inspector Shang pointed at the boys. "Go home right now or I _will_ arrest you."

They looked from Inspector to Master Shang and, at an encouraging nod from the old man, took off running down the streets.

The street grew quiet once more as the different footfalls faded away, as though the city itself held its breath, waiting.

* * *

"Hey!" Little Jiang pounded on the door with the butt of his falchion. "Someone's sick in here. We need a doctor!"

Silence answered him from the other side of the door. He shook his head at the others. "No use."

"So it's true." Sengmi shivered.

"Or they just saw through your act." Yenzi shrugged. "I mean, do you even know who was going to be the sick one if they opened the door?"

"I figured we'd just rush 'em." Jiang lifted his falchion at the same time Sengmi said: "I thought it was me."

Yenzi shook her head as nervous giggles rippled through the recruits.

"So you're sure you saw it." Sengmi turned to a boy next to her. "They were really arresting Captain Ji?"

"Swear to spirits." The boy stood taller at the others' attention. "And Agni. And my mom!"

"You were throwing up on the deck, weren't you." Jiang raised an eyebrow.

"I needed some air, okay?" The boy's face flushed. "But I know what I saw. This bunch of officers said they were relieving the captain of duty, and then they took him to his cabin. That's when they hauled me back down here and locked us in."

Sengmi bit her lower lip. "You also said they were setting up-"

"-a flare signal. Yeah." Silence pierced through the recruits. "And their leader said the marines couldn't come for the captain but weren't hurt. I think they're locked up, like us."

"If they've sent the signal we don't have a lot of time." Sengmi rubbed her chin. "Jiang, what if we break down the door?"

"Maybe all of us together could, but it's made of metal. It'll bring a lot of sailors on us."

"We still outnumber them, but we'll lose the advantage of surprise. Yenzi-" Sengmi paused. "What are you doing?"

Yenzi shot a puff of fire into the air, then flailed her arms as if to snatch a buzzard-fly out of the air. She didn't seem to notice the stares.

"Blast it!" She slammed a hand against the bulkhead, breathing hard. "I can't do it this way. Usually I have a big fire going first."

Jiang's eyes brightened. "Your forge-bending!"

"Uh-huh, but it's no use. I can't make fire and hold it down at the same time."

"Well, what's a roomful of firebenders for?" Sengmi got into stance. "We'll just burn our uniforms."

"I don't think our surprise field trip to the North Pole is the best time to get naked. And we could end up choking on the smoke. Are we that desperate?"

"Yenzi." Sengmi gripped her shoulders. "The people who want to use earthbenders to kill us are on their way right now. There has never been a time we were this... this desperate..." she trailed off, eyes going wide.

Yenzi touched her arm. "Are you okay?"

"I've got it." Sengmi turned to the room. "We need to bend fire at Yenzi!"

Jiang snapped his head around at her. "What?!"

"Wait wait." Yenzi raised her hands as she backed away. "How does setting me on fire solve anything?"

"If you don't want to be on fire, you're going to have to forge-bend. Either that or we start shedding some clothes."

"Way to make burning alive look appealing. All right! Listen up, hotshots." Yenzi reached back to rap the bulkhead to her right with her knuckles. "You aim here. I'm going to remember any misfire, okay?"

As her fellow recruits went from looking to each other and murmuring to lining up for their shots, Yenzi dropped into her own stance. "I'm going to die horribly, aren't I."

"Aren't we all?" Sengmi took a step forward, her raised hands unsteady.

"On my signal." Jiang raised his falchion, looked over the lined-up firebenders. He struck down as though at an enemy. "Now!"

Jets of fire flew from the recruits' hands toward Yenzi, the glow glittering on the beads of sweat over her lips and growing in the whites of her eyes.

* * *

The marines tensed as the din in the corridor died down and the lock wheel turned. The door swung open and a skull mask under a horned helmet looked in.

One of the marines leapt forward, flames growing in his hands. The helmeted figure stumbled back, a girl's voice echoing behind the mask: "Wait, don't! We're friendly! Friendlies!"

"What in..." the marine lowered his hands. "Aren't you one of the Forty-First kids?"

"Private Yin Sengmi." She tore off her visor and raised it in a vague surrender, mouth wide in a nervous grin. "We're here to rescue you!"

Others appeared behind her in the doorway, removing their masks and wiping their sweating faces as they entered. One boy had to stoop to get through the door, and another girl's clothes and hair were singed.

"Tien?" Corporal Zanzen stepped forward. "What happened to you, kid, a battle?"

"Uh? No, just trial and error." Yenzi touched her fingertips to the light burn on her cheek, looking dazed. "I guess they give us the ugly masks for a reason."

"It's no reason I'm bothered with." Zanzen smoothed his forelocks back. "They cramp my style."

"Get in here and close the door." The most senior marine, Sergeant Kuai, waved at the recruits.

Recruits and marines together clambered to drag in unconscious guards from the passageway. The marines proceeded to bind the sailors.

"What's going on?" The Sergeant crossed his arms. "The Captain?"

"A mutiny," said Jiang. "They locked us in the hold, but we uh, cut our way out. Senior officers ordered Captain Ji to his cabin, and he's still there as far as we know."

"And these officers don't know you're here?"

"Not yet, probably. Just a few of us got out of the hold so's not to tip them off, and we poked around for you before trying to get the captain. They don't usually guard and lock the enlisted men's mess, so we figured you'd be here."

"Smart kids." Sergeant Kuai turned to the other marines. "All right men, we have a mutiny to put down."

"But... the Chief ordered us to stay here, sir."

"And now we know why. If Senior Lieutenant Wu is a mutineer, we're no longer bound by his order."

"Is it, though? A mutiny?" Another marine stepped forward. "The Captain violated a direct order from High Command."

"And the First Mate agreed with him, so I reckon it weren't Wu's place to act up. Those nobles were going to throw those kids, these kids," Zanzen waved at Yenzi and Jiang and the others, "to the earthbenders without giving any operational support. You think that's right?"

The marine crossed his arms. "We're soldiers. It's not about right."

"Boys, I know the situation is complicated." Sergeant Kuai stepped between them. "And there could be consequences. That is why I'll take volunteers only; the rest of you stay here."

"I'm with you, sir." Zanzen went to stand with him, and most of the others followed. After a moment's hesitation, so did the dissenter.

"All right." Kuai nodded to the men around him. "First we free the Captain. Then we're taking back the control room. Move out."

"What about us?" Sengmi stood aside as the marines moved past her to the corridor.

The Sergeant didn't spare her a glance. "Go back to the hold and stay stay out of trouble."

"Looks like they have things under control." Sengmi watched them go.

"Good. I want to sleep for a week." Yenzi slumped against the bulkhead, rubbing at the burnt ends of her hair.

"Hey." Jiang put an arm around her shoulders as they walked out. "Let's get you to sick bay first. I'll bet they have something for those burns."

"They'll be busy enough soon." Yenzi looked in the direction the marines had gone. "Let's just get to the hold."

The others said nothing to that. They shuffled down the passageway, tiredness dragging down their steps.

* * *

The riders came to the gates at dawn. Their hard night's ride was evident in the listless droop of their rhinos' heads and the dust on their armor.

"State your business," called a guard, one of the two stationed on the wall above the closed gates.

"This is Colonel Jeong Myeong of the Southeast Mainland Defense Garrison." The rider at the head of the column reined his beast in and lifted his grey head toward the guards. "We are responding to signal beacons from last night."

"The governor has bid us assure you, the signals were only accidents."

"If it were one beacon, perhaps. But we counted three separate flares before your assurance signal came."

"It was a... large accident?"

Colonel Jeong looked down at his rhino's neck before he looked back up at the wall.

"Guardsman, I understand the difficult position you are in. I, however, have a duty to investigate this disturbance to a security installation, and your governor will be obstructing the Firelord's own national defense unless you let us in." His voice descended to a growl. "Now."

"A moment, sir." Footfalls and voices sounded on top of the wall. Soon ropes and gears groaned as the gate inched and then swung open.

Jeong and his men rode through in a trail of swishing tails and alert gazes. A man with a lieutenant's insignia hurried up to greet them.

"Colonel Jeong, sir!"

Jeong reined his ride to a stop. "You are in charge of this watch, I presume?"

"Yes sir. I apologize for the misunderstand-"

"Thank you." Jeong moved his eyes to give the lieutenant a sidewise glance, making him swallow and stand straighter. "Kindly send a message to the governor that we are on our way to speak to him. We will require his cooperation to investigate this disturbance."

When the lieutenant had scampered away Jeong's second in command moved his rhino alongside the Colonel's. "Do you think the governor will be amenable?"

Jeong looked straight ahead, his lips barely moving as he talked. "It does not matter if he is. We will keep ourselves underfoot and make sure the imprisoned protesters are not harmed in any way."

"And what will we report to Mainland Command?"

"The truth." Jeong flicked the reins to coax his rhino into a rolling walk. The others followed. "We will discover in the course of our investigation that the protests were non-violent, and respected the authority and dignity of His Majesty's throne in every way."

"I hope that's enough to protect them, sir."

"So do I." Jeong scanned the empty streets of Haishan as he rode. "It would be a shame for another man in my family to turn deserter."


	46. Chapter 19: Voices 4 of 5

The marines bowed as he entered the control room. The whole length of the ship came into view through the windows in front, the glaciers moving astern on either side as the _Firebrand_ went northeast by east on the course Ji had set. The struggles on the deck were over, and marines were taking the mutineers below to place them in the brig.

Ji turned his gaze from the window to the figures approaching him, Senior Lieutenant Wu and the two marines guarding him on either side. Wu paused three paces before him, and his escorts stopped with him.

"The ship is yours, Captain." The Chief of Security inclined his head a fraction. "All systems are in order, and we have sent a distress signal which the _Azure Inferno_ has answered. She should be on her way as we speak."

"You have been busy, I see."

"With my marines more loyal to you than to their direct superior, I expected that my control of the _Firebrand_ would not last long." The shoulders of the marines on either side of Wu grew taut at the words. "It was enough."

"Yes." Ji signaled the marines to take him away. "You have done quite enough."

"Captain," called the starboard lookout.

"Report." Here it came, then.

"Smoke trails off starboard, due south, sir." The words came as though the boy's throat were too tight to let them out.

Ji took out his spyglass and saw the puffs of grey between the white glaciers. The _Inferno_ was a Comet-class destroyer, well suited to navigating these obstacle-strewn waters he had hoped to hide in.

"Tell the engine room I need more speed. They have permission to use the reserve fuel." He lowered the spyglass. "Make all haste to Korakk's Pass."

"Sir! Another smoke trail, astern!"

"Smoke at zero-three-five!"

"Well." Ji aimed his glass the directions indicated, his lips drawing away from his teeth. "It seems the _Inferno_ brought friends along."

"What do we do, sir?" asked Specialist Wan.

"How long until Korakk's Pass?" He snapped his spyglass closed.

"Current estimate is half an hour, sir."

"And how long until the _Inferno_ or one of the others interdicts?"

"Half an hour to an hour."

"The plan holds: We lose them at the Pass. Have the abovedeck watch keep an eye on the water, they may send boarding parties or saboteurs."

"Aye, sir."

Ji glared ahead at the ship's course, willing the white outline of the split ice to appear, the cold refuge where they might earn a little time for their fragile cargo.

He did not allow himself to question what came next or if he was doing the right thing. The future was for men who had not thrown theirs away. He had only this moment, only the fire in his belly driving him on to whatever end might come.

* * *

Burning rock kicked up a plume of water and hissing steam off port, making the deck of the control roomroll and toss. Ji compensated with his legs to keep his balance, leaning left to resist the swerve of the ship from the helmsman's frantic evasions.

Below him through the driving snow, sailors and marines put out fires on deck while more projectiles whizzed overhead. A grating sound came to his ears and traveled up his legs as a missile scraped the hull of the _Firebrand._

"Korakk's Pass is coming into sight, sir."

A wall of ice rose from the sea with their approach, the black crack down its middle already visible at this distance. The royal cartographers in their zeal to rename the whole world used other designations, but this far north sailors trusted the local maps better. So Korakk's Pass it was to them, after some tribal hunter or other who had found it, the entrance to the strait that opened into Otterseal Bay.

The deck shook out from under his feet and his knees exploded with pain. Ji looked around when the shock had died down to a tremor, his brain still swimming in his head.

"Sir, the control tower's taken a hit!" The words, more a shriek of terror, confirmed the knowledge that was catching up to his brain.

"_Inferno,_ on our tail and closing!"

Ji turned his creaking neck to see, no more than five ship-lengths off stern, the weird blue sheen of the destroyer the Firelord had commissioned in honor of his daughter. He half expected the fire wreathing her missiles to be blue as well, but they were just the usual, and plenty deadly, red and orange. The_ Inferno's_ sister ships brought up the rear, spreading out to pin the _Firebrand_ in.

"Sir, we must evacuate the superstructure." Mo was by his side, helping him up, and barring injury a captain should not be on his knees, blast it. Ji shook him off and got to his feet.

"Right." He grasped at procedure, routine, anything to keep him moored to the now. "Give the signal to unlock the second helm. Tell Dou to get his ass down there to relieve the backup helmsman." Dou must be ready to drop, but Ji needed him for this last desperate sprint into the hope of safety.

"Yes Captain!"

"And no more evasive maneuvers. We'll take the hits, but we can't lose speed. Clear the control tower."

"Clear the tower, aye sir! Clear off deck now! Move!"

Ji moved with them, swept on their tide, down the clanging stairs while catapult missiles boomed and splashed outside, past the warm thrum of the engine, into the cold that hit his face like a wall and onto a deck slick with melting and freezing snow.

"I want only minimal personnel on deck." The protection of the superstructure, such as it was, would soon be gone and everyone above deck was vulnerable.

The wall of ice that encased Otterseal Bay loomed over them, the split down its middle opening into shadows of blue and green: Korakk's Pass, their salvation, their deathtrap.

"Ram us through that crack, Master Dou!"

"Aye sir!" Dou ran past him on his way to the backup helm, slipping and sliding as the ship shook.

"Ready the catapults in configuration." Some distant machine in his head spit out the necessary actions and pushed them through his mouth. He sailed on a piece of time without past or future, hurtling through blinding white with no destination.

"Catapults, aye!"

"Await my signal."

He looked over his shoulder at the _Inferno_ and her sisters, tendrils coming loose from his topknot to whip across his sight. It was hard to tell through the driving snow, but the ships seemed closer than before. Bursts of catapult fire burned through the whiteness and hit the superstructure, dragging a grinding moan through the _Firebrand._

"Captain." Mo, again. "You must have noticed they are aiming at-"

"The engine. Yes, I know." He felt the forward lurch as more missiles landed in the sea off the stern like a nudge to the backside. "And now they're aiming lower to get it." Too low this time, but they would try again.

"They're closing, and we're going straight as an arrow. Sir, it's only a matter of time. We should consider surren-"

Two missiles thunked on the stern-side hull, a kick this time instead of a nudge. Ji threw a foot forward just in time to catch himself while men went rolling all around him.

"Private Tien!"

He turned, snow flying across his line of sight, to see the marine Zanzen, his face recognizable through the snow with his visor off. He stood on the port side of the keeling superstructure, holding onto a smaller form that struggled in his grip. Ji recognized the young Private in the Forty-First, the troublemaker, the one who's babbled to him about dragons. Others of her unit hovered around them, fluttering in their indecision.

"Get those kids below!" What in watery hell were they doing up here, in the middle of a long-range assault?

Zanzen was shouting in the girl's face to be heard. "You can't go back there! They're aiming catapult fire!"

"Corporal Lout, I don't have time-" she looked to one side. "Get him off me!"

Then Ji saw him, a shadow in the snow built like a mountain on legs, spinning a bladed spear over his head as though it were a staff. Zanzen turned his head in time to get the wooden end of the pole slammed into his nose.

Private Tien pushed the staggering Corporal away as he clutched at his face. She took off astern of the superstructure, her friends running with her.

Before he knew it Ji's own feet were pounding on the deck, toward the catapult fire because those kids were going to die for no reason and he would drag them bodily away if that was what it took.

The ship staggered again as catapult missiles struck the stern just below the railing. They would get the engine on the next round, or the next. It was growing darker—not just the sky as the unseen sun tilted toward evening, he knew, but because they were entering the shadow of the ice wall, the _Firebrand's_ bow less than two ship-lengths from Korakk's Pass.

He turned the corner around the superstructure to see fire blaze through the slanting white. As he watched the fire slowed, stopped, _congealed_ as though frozen in the cold.

"Again!"

Four jets of fire converged on the girl, Private Tien. She raised her arms to shoulder level, eyes closed in concentration, and the bursts slowed to a crawl before they touched her. The flames grew smaller, brighter, and merged to join the shining loop that floated around her in a circle, the frozen fire turning gold, then platinum, then to a white that burned his eyes.

"Incoming!"

Two arcs of fire whooshed up from the _Azure Inferno_ and one of her sisters. One went high, while other came in low over the water. It was not too low this time, leaping toward the base of the superstructure and the _Firebrand's_ engine house.

It would crush Private Tien who stood blocking its target.

"Yenzi!" "Tien!" "Watch out!" Ji realized he was yelling, too, without knowing what he screamed. He took a lunging step forward without any thought of what he might achieve.

The missile was dropping from its peak _too fast_ and thrust toward the engine and Tien. Thin white tendrils of light, crackling at the edges, crept from her hands to meet the sweep of the flaming arc—only to be swallowed in the fire bearing down on her.

He could not look, no more, no more of killing their own they were only kids _may daylight strike the sight from my eyes_

_CRACK._ Ji threw out a hand, squeezing his eyes shut so he would not see. The next moment a flash of light stabbed through his palm and eyelids.

He looked up to see a burst of white light overhead like the death of a small sun, from which flaming pieces of rock flew in all directions. The debris fell into the sea with little splashes and hisses, like impotent complaints.

The light died down and the snow-streaked dusk returned. With it came the sight of ice, towering walls of it streaking by on either side while the engine roared out its vitality, its belching smoke flying above like a banner.

"Tien!" "Yenzi, are you all right?" The recruits were running across the deck toward the girl at the base of the superstructure, covered in a coat of dust and raising herself from the deck.

"Yeah." She gave an explosive sneeze, then another as her friends crowded around her and hid her from sight. "I think I have rock dust in my nose."

"Sir, we are inside Korakk's Pass." Mo's voice was shaking ever so slightly.

"The catapults." The _Inferno_ had fallen behind; likely she had slowed to avoid collision, since they'd had such a direct hit on the engine. Ji imagined the confusion of her crew, and knew his grin must look like a madman's. "Fire One and Two."

"Catapults One and Two aye sir."

Flames burst into life on tar-covered rocks, the orange and gold seeping into the cobalt light. The lines twanged as they were cut, and the beams of the Catapults One and Two lurched onto the deck like drunks falling on their faces.

The _Firebrand's _missiles flew from starboard and port at an angle to strike the walls of Korakk's Pass high above, gouging out chunks of ice that slammed into the sea astern of her. The _Azure Inferno_ and her sisters slowed as their way filled with ice. The _Inferno _came plowing on, trying to ram through with her bowsprit.

"Fire Three and Four."

"Three and Four aye!"

The second round brought down more of the walls, burying the bow of the _Inferno_ in glittering white. The _Azure Inferno_ and her handmaidens floated like dead fish, their way choked off, while the _Firebrand_ glided down the strait toward Otterseal Bay.

* * *

"Sa Ye?" Zuko blinked up at her from the bed. "I'm still dreaming."

"I finally got the General to let me see you." She caressed his unburned cheek.

Paws ran up his body and a black-furred face with gleaming yellow eyes thrust into his. _Meow, _said Shao Mei.

"And I sneaked in someone else who wanted to see you."

"But..." he let Shao Mei settle under his arm, her purr tickling his side. "This is impossible. You hate me."

"Oh, you." Sa Ye's laughter was half a sob. "Just when I think you're so smart, you have to go and say something like that."

"But Khoujin..." It hurt to swallow. He put a hand to Shao Mei's flank, and felt calmer at the rub of her head against his arm.

Sa Ye touched his face, turning it to make him look at her. "I never blamed you for Khoujin. Never. I stayed away for another reason, a silly reason." She smiled sadly. "And it didn't even work. My plans never seem to go the way I thought."

"Mine either." He noticed something and brushed away the hair at her temple, revealing a jagged scar. "What happened?"

"I fell. But I'm okay now." She pressed his hand to her face. "I might have solved some problems if I'd bashed my face against a rock sooner."

"And made other problems." Zuko pointed at the bandages over his own face.

"Aren't there always?" They giggled at each other.

Sa Ye helped him settle into bed, and took away his sweaty bedspread over Shao Mei's protests to cover him with a fresh one. The wingcat rearranged herself for sleep, grumbling.

Zuko's eye kept closing. He fought the heaviness in his eye; a memory of a sleepy farewell and a cold morning flitted through the back of his mind. He started when he felt a cool hand on his head.

"Sleep. I'll be here when you wake."

He did, borne on the sound of Shao Mei's purring. This time his dreams lay light upon him, of turtleducks and lullabies and an embrace that held him through the years and across the span of the world.

* * *

"You brought my son to this."

"Perhaps." Iroh sat with his hands in his sleeves, contemplating the steaming cup of tea before him.

"Perhaps, you say, pretending to accept responsibility while leaving yourself room to slither out." Ozai's face twisted into bitterness. "You fanned his disrespect for the Firelord. You countenanced, no, enflamed his confrontation with his sister by pursuing your investigation. You," his voice became a rasping whisper, "allowed him in the war chamber."

Iroh closed his eyes. When he opened them a fire lurked behind the calm. "You ambushed Zuko in Agni Kai. You entrapped him into a duel he could not fight, then denounced him as a coward before the court. Is that what your honor looks like, Ozai?"

"I did what I had to do. The boy was weakening the Firelord's authority, challenging me at every turn about the war effort. If you were cowardly enough to hide behind my son while you roped him into weakening me, you should at least have anticipated that he would be burned in your place."

"Is that why you contemplate killing him?" Iroh growled low in his throat. "To strike at me?"

"I care nothing for the rustling of courtly parasites." Ozai rose out of his seat at the table and paced away before he spun to face his brother. "Yet a prince's life is ever forfeit to the stability of the realm."

"And to his father's ambitions, no doubt."

"Ambition, brother? Do you call it that?" Ozai came back to the table to loom over Iroh, who met his eyes without blinking. "You, who fled the responsibility of this office because you were undone by your son's death like a woman? Only the most grossly self-indulgent dotard could place his own mewling before the millions of People of Fire."

"Let us talk about our people, then." Iroh lifted his eyebrows. "The same folk who rose up across the country begging for Zuko's life."

Ozai gritted his teeth. "You and your traitor friends agitating my subjects, you mean."

"So you would burn your subjects as you did your son, all because you see in them my nefarious plot to undermine you." Iroh shook his head. "Will you burn down the world, Ozai, because I live in it?"

"You are nothing!" Ozai brought his hand down on the table with a thud that spilled his tea across the polished surface. "I am the Lord of Fire, father to my people and the living glory of the Sun. You... you are a failure, as general, prince, and father!"

Iroh stared for a moment at his brother's face before he looked away. "I should hate you for all that you did. Yet all I feel is pity."

"You dare!" Porcelain crashed and shattered in bursts of fire as Ozai swept everything off the table between them. "You dare speak to your Firelord this way, Spider-Snake of the West!"

Iroh stood then like a mountain rising. "If you are Firelord, think like one_. _Do you think killing your son will be a show of strength? It will only cost you your leverage with the Great Houses. It is the same with these protests. Would you visit bloody retribution on your people and show yourself to be a defender of the strong against the weak?"

"You forced that choice on me," Ozai ground out. "You and that damnable boy."

"Singe another hair on his head, Ozai." Iroh pointed a finger at him, and Ozai flinched at the look in his eyes. "One hair, and I swear on the ashes of our ancestors that the Nation they built will tear itself apart."

"You would threaten treason?"

"I do not deal in threats, only promises and warnings." Iroh tucked his hands in his sleeves. "You may strike me down here and now, and you may bring spirit-curses down on you and your house by slaying your own son. Yet that will no more stop the process than sitting on a volcano will smother it."

"You beg so prettily for your life, brother. Very well." Ozai clasped his hands behind his back. "I will hear the boon you crave of your Firelord."

"I want Zuko's honor restored and his place at court reinstated."

"Impossible, for his sake as well as the Nation's. He is not safe here, and he destabilizes the country with his very presence."

"Then he will be allowed to leave the country unharmed. It will be in the form of a princely task, something that leaves him a way to restore his honor."

"A task fit for a prince." Ozai's lips curled. "Name your second demand."

"You will give an official and binding declaration that the protesters will not be harmed. They marched for the Firelord and his son, and should not be dishonored for their devotion."

"That may also send a message to my rich parasites." Ozai looked thoughtful as he paced. "Anything else before we are relieved of each other's presence, Iroh?"

"You will make a public proclamation honoring the fallen of the Forty-First Division, and will ransom back the prisoners in Earth Kingdom hands. The surviving service members will be reassigned to other units and given positions and duties fitting their abilities. This may," he put emphasis on the word, "calm the regions worst affected."

"If they continue to show their insolence, my own patience may be stretched."

"They will keep that in mind, I am sure."

Ozai came to a stop before Iroh. "Truly the Fire Nation is blessed not to have a Firelord as weak as you."

"Your answer, brother?"

"I require time to think, and you will wait upon my pleasure."

"Think quickly. The offer will grow less favorable with time." Iroh turned and left without bowing, stepping around the remains of the tea service.


	47. Chapter 19: Voices 5 of 5

"Captain, we've brought him."

"Come in." Ji stopped his pacing and faced the door to the administrative cabin that was his temporary stateroom.

Zanzen, his nose swollen to the size of his fist, opened the door and stepped aside for Lieutenant Wu to enter. Sergeant Kuai brought up the rear.

"This is an odd time for a summons, Captain." Lieutenant Wu's breath misted in the air of the cabin. "The _Azure Inferno_ is on her way through the ice, or so we should all hope. Assuming we do not go to a cold death here it is the Navy who will judge both our fates, not you."

"You're right, Lieutenant." Ji shivered and sank deeper into his standard-issue parka. "I can only hope I have earned enough time for our friends in the Forty-First; there's nothing more I can do for them. This meeting isn't to judge you, but to negotiate with you."

"And why do you believe you are in any position to negotiate?"

"I think you'll hear me out." Ji's gaze went to Sergeant Kuai and Zanzen in turn. "I'm not negotiating for myself."

Wu's eyes narrowed. "I'm listening, sir."

"It's a simple matter of chronology." Ji resumed pacing, throwing Wu the occasional glance. "I think, when the investigators ask, we should change the order of events slightly. I've gotten my other officers on board with this new version of events. You are the only one who remains to join us."

"And what is this... vessel of chronology you wish me to board with you?" Wu frowned. "Terrible metaphor sir, by the way."

"Acknowledged. I'm saying, Lieutenant Wu, that your marines would have stopped me from my insubordination, but they could do little while you were under lock and guard by my order. Then, after I got us all stuck in this icy hell, you escaped with the help of your marines and my first mate, Lieutenant Mo."

He came to a stop before Wu. "And this is the point in the story where you take over the ship, arrest me, and surrender the _Firebrand _to His Majesty's Navy."

Kuai took a step forward. "Captain-"

"You do not have permission to speak, Sergeant." Ji did not look away from Wu.

"You would paint me the hero of this whole affair." Wu's face contorted. "After I almost sank your plans. Why?"

"You already know why, Lieutenant." Ji gave a sidelong glance to Kuai, then Zanzen. "It's for the same reason you'll do as I ask."

"Tell a blatant lie to protect my men, you mean. The same men who took your side over mine."

"Frankly I can't think of a better revenge." Ji showed his teeth. "A man like you, having to live a self-seeking lie. Every bit of recognition you get from this affair will feel like a brand burned into your face."

"Damn you to all ten hells." Wu looked away with a sharp twist of his head, his breaths coming in abrupt puffs. "You've put me in an impossible position."

"So I have. But I know my Chief of Security. He would never shy away from a decision, even an impossible one." Ji looked hard into Wu's face. "What I'd like to know is, are you still that man I know?"

Lieutenant Wu heaved a sigh that dispersed in the air before him. The marines on either side stared straight ahead, unmoving.

"It has been an honor to serve with you, Captain." Wu gave a bow.

Ji returned it. "I feel the same, strange to say."

Wu turned to Sergeant Kuai. "Stand guard outside the cabin. I will go take charge of the _Firebrand._"

The door closed behind Wu, and Ji went around his desk to sit down behind it.

"How's that nose, Corporal?"

"It's good, sir." Zanzen's consonants burst out like notes on a waterlogged tsungi horn. "Sir, I don't know what to say."

"There's no need. Things won't get any better for me with company to drag under. The story's going to fall down if anyone looks too hard at it, but let's hope High Command will be happy to end this with one man down." Ji gave a one-shouldered shrug. "A sailor in His Majesty's Navy watches out for his men."

"Was that why you saved the men of the Forty-first?" asked Kuai.

"I might not have saved them from much of anything. I just wanted there to be one man, just one, to stand up and show..." He stopped himself. "They're out of my hands now."

"What about you, Captain?" Zanzen's voice grew thick. "What happens to you?"

Ji looked at him for a moment before his face relaxed into a rueful smile. "You don't want your nose to run in that state, believe me. Now get out, both of you, and find me my cabin boy. I need to look presentable for my arrest."

Kuai bowed and left. Zanzen did the same, looking over his shoulder. Alone, Ji went to a porthole and looked out at the icy sea, watching its undulations for a long time.

* * *

"There was an uprising?" Zuko's good eye fixed on her, wide and frightened.

"Across the country." Sa Ye tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, careful to keep away from the half that had been shaved away from his burn. She remembered his full head of long hair in her hands, something that seemed so long ago. "They were calling for you, Zuko."

"Was anyone- were they-" he tried to rise, but winced and sank into himself. The wingcat, curled in a corner of the bed, opened a sleepy yellow eye and mewed. The caretaker sitting against the wall in a doze did not stir.

"No, no they weren't." She pushed him back by his shoulders and tucked the sheets around him, then adjusted her own heft onto the bedside chair, one hand smoothing the cat back to rumbly sleep. "They're all right. The Firelord heard their call and let them go."

Of course people were hurt and worse here and there, by accident, local guards too hot on the job, or people being stupid and afraid as people will. Zuko didn't have to know that right now, or maybe ever. The Firelord had not raised his hand against his subjects, and that was what the Prince needed to know.

That was what the General said, anyway.

"Father listened to them." Zuko whispered the words like a prayer. "He cares, he really does…" his hand went to his bandages before it flinched away as though the cloth stung him. She remembered repeating that one to herself often enough. _He really cares about me. He does._

"The Fire Nation fought for me." He closed his eyes and lay his head back. "The Fire Nation is my mother."

Sa Ye felt like she should say something, how it was General Iroh as forced Firelord Ozai's hand, making sure Zuko and the protesters were all safe. _Your father was willing to let you die._ She wanted to shake the truth into him. _Your uncle wouldn't let him._

Her tongue lay like a lump of lead, though. If the child needed to believe that his father and his mother had saved his life together, who was she to take that little bit of warmth from him? General Iroh wouldn't do it, and she rightly couldn't, either. Maybe that was weak of her, she didn't know and didn't care.

"Is there any news on the Forty-First?"

"The General said they're disbanding it and reassigning everyone."

She lowered her eyes, afraid he would read in them that there wasn't enough left there to form a Division. She was back in that moment when Khoujin had slumped into her arms with a breath like a sigh of relief, before he stopped moving at all.

A thump came under her chest as her little fire-wielder kicked and moved. She stroked her middle, trying to soothe them both.

Zuko followed the motion with his gaze. "Your baby..."

"He's doing great. Always hungry, like his daddy." She took Zuko's hand and put it to the bump, though the kicking was gone. "General Iroh says he'll be a firebender."

Her chest tightened at the look of wonder that spread over Zuko's face, his hand gentle as though he petted a bird. "Will you name him for Khoujin?"

"I don't know yet. I'm still thinking." Her son's name needed to mean something, say something about the journey that brought them here.

Zuko lay back and closed his eye a moment. He was fever-warm when she touched him, so she went to the basin by the wall and returned with a wet washcloth.

"I'll be going away for a little while, Sa Ye."

Her hand paused in the middle of cooling his face with the cloth. He turned his head to look at her.

"You don't need to protect me from it, I know that's the way it has to be."

"I know." Sa Ye took the cloth from his face and looked down at her hands. _So am I._ That was the way it had to be for her, too, because of the rumor, because of the things she knew or had half seen.

"Father only- he's only doing what he has to." Zuko swallowed. "We can't risk a divided country during war, and it's me, I'm the one who forced him to-"

"Zuko." She put a hand on his forehead, trying to calm him. He was burning up, no, he was breathing smoke. The caretaker stirred against the wall. "It's okay."

"I didn't mean to make such a mess of things." Zuko's eye closed in exhaustion. "I'm so sorry."

"I know." She bent down to kiss his eyelid, the lashes damp against her lips. She wished she could say something deeper, smarter, but only the same stupid words came to mind. "It's okay, Zuko."

He settled back, looking white as the sheets. The caretaker hurried over to their side, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and with his help Zuko shifted trying to find a comfortable position. Sa Ye scooped the puzzled wingcat from the bed to get her out of the way.

Just then her ear caught a tiny clink, and she looked to see a figure standing at the doorway. She had an impression of skin so pale the light seemed to shine through it, a build like a young water-willow. Then in a twinkle the girl was gone, quick and silent as a cheetah-deer. _And she's kind of quiet and graceful and..._

Sa Ye threw a glance Zuko, lying still with a ragged look while the caretaker bent over him. She was moving before she knew why, out the door and down the hallway with the cat's drowsy weight clutched in her arms.

"Wait!" she called, but the girl hurried down the stairs to the landing without looking back.

Sa Ye decided to take a chance. "Lady Mai?"

The girl startled to a stop on the landing and cast a glance over her shoulder.

"Do I know you?"

"No, my lady, but I heard of you from Lady Ty Lee and Prince Zuko." Sa Ye climbed down toward the young Lady Mai, her feet careful on the steps. "Why don't you stay and see him?"

Mai lowered her gaze, and Sa Ye's heart sank as she wondered how much the girl had seen. Had she connected it to the rumor? Her arms went slack to lower the cat over her belly, as though she could hide the bump. Shao Mei meowed and tried to scrabble back up with her hind legs, and the baby kicked back furiously against the intrusion.

"Shao Zu?"

Sa Ye looked up, wincing as she tried to gather up the wingcat. Little Zu? Was that her nickname for Prince-

_I heard Lady Mai gave him back her kitten._

Shao Mei. Lady Mai. Shao Zu. _Oh._

Sa Ye climbed down the rest of the way to the landing and thrust the wingcat into Mai's arms. "Here. Keep her."

Mai gaped while the cat clung to her. "I'm leaving for the Colonies tomorrow. I- I snuck out of the house, I don't know if I'm allowed-"

"Tell your parents she's a gift from Princess Azula," said Sa Ye, remembering who the kittens were originally from. _The cat died after having her litter. Bad luck, probably._

Mai's arms closed around Shao Mei, who snuggled against her shoulder.

"Won't you see Prince Zuko before you leave? I know he wants to see you."

"No." Mai looked away from the sickroom door. "I can't look him in the eye."

Sa Ye bit her lower lip. "My lady, no matter what you might have heard-"

"No, not-" Mai shook her head, sending waves through her shining hair. "It's not. But someday..." her eyes narrowed, and Shao Mei yowled when the arms around her tightened.

" 'Mei?" Zuko's voice drifted from the door above.

Lady Mai gulped. "I should go."

"Safe travels, my lady. I'll tell him about the cat." Whatever lay between the young noblewoman and the Prince, Sa Ye would not push her if she felt she wasn't ready.

Mai hurried down to the first-floor door; the wingcat poked its head above the girl's shoulder, the glimmers of yellow eyes fading with distance. As Sa Ye climbed the stairs to the sickroom she wondered how long it might be before any of them saw each other, once they were scattered to the winds.

* * *

"Ty Lee. Can't breathe."

"Sorry." Ty Lee unwound her arms from Mai and took a step back, sniffling. "But when are we ever going to see you again?"

Azula rolled her eyes. "Stop being stupid. She's just going to the Colonies, it's not like she'll never visit."

"If you say so," said Mai. The morning sun sparkled on the water of the harbor and gleamed off the metal ship that rested against the pier, but did not touch the stillness of her eyes.

"I do. And here comes your captain." Azula turned in the direction of the booted feet that approached across the pier. "Excuse me while I threaten him with dire consequences unless he gets you safely to Shang Ru."

"Of course." Mai bowed.

"Ooh, ooh!" Ty Lee bounced on the balls of her feet. "Can I see your new wingcat? Is she on board? Will you show me around your ship?"

"Sure, you can see my... new wingcat." Mai met Azula's eyes for the briefest of moments over Ty Lee's head before she turned to the lowered boarding ramp. "Come on."

Out of the corner of her eye, Azula watched them go until Zhao walked into the shadow of the ship and came to a stop before her.

"Princess." He went to a knee and bowed his head.

"Captain." She looked on him without expression. "I trust you will see my friend and her family safely to their destination. She was an excellent companion to me, you know. So quiet and obedient."

"I will not fail your trust, your Highness." He bowed deeper. "I only regret my service to you was so short."

"You do us the greatest service by defending our Nation's seas. And by being vigilant of any sign of our enemies."

"Both internal and external. I understand, Princess."

"If you catch wind of our greatest _external_ enemy, I am sure you will make all haste to apprehend him before any _internal_ enemy does—but I don't need to tell you that."

"It will be my honor, as well as my pleasure." Zhao grinned to himself.

"Safe sailing, Captain." She stepped back from him. "I wish you every success."

"And I to you, my lady." He rose and bowed to her. "Though I do not need to, for someone born under a star of fortune."

"I was, wasn't I." She watched him climb the ramp with his shoulders back and head held high, only to stumble aside when Ty Lee came somersaulting down. Ty Lee leapt off the steps, spun twice through the air, and landed on the pier next to Azula while Zhao stomped the rest of the way up the ramp.

"See you soon, Mai!" Ty Lee's wave was so enthusiastic her whole body swayed with it. "I'll come visit and see the circus!"

Mai appeared at the railing, her black wingcat gliding around her in the sea breeze. Mai bowed to Azula and waved back at Ty Lee, and held the cat in her arms when it settled against her. The ship lumbered over the water and out of harbor until it was just a distant gleam on the morning sea.

* * *

_Next: Letters to loved ones and a sailor beached_


	48. Chapter 20: Letters

Note: As always, I cannot thank Amy Raine enough for her work beta-reading this chapter.

* * *

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 20: Letters**

* * *

Life is hard, it does not pamper anybody, and for every time it strokes you it gives you ten blows. Become accustomed to that soon, but don't let it defeat you. Decide to fight.

- Milada Horáková*

* Czech politician hanged for treason by the Communist regime in 1950. The excerpt is from Dr. Horáková's final letter to her sixteen-year-old daughter.

* * *

_Junior Lieutenant Ji,_

_Your request for placement in the special outbound assignment aboard the _Star-Seeker_ is hereby granted. You will report to your warden by the twentieth of this month for transport to your vessel. If your posting should terminate for any reason other than official reassignment you will resume the remainder of the term of your incarceration, excluding any period served in good standing..._

Ji put the letter down on his lap. He already knew its contents by heart, no need to read it for the tenth or twentieth time.

Dust in the exercise yard blew in a stray wind that had made it past the prison walls. He felt it on his scalp and reached up to feel the bristles of his hair, as he had so many times in the first few days here. He did not remember ever feeling so alone as he had when his hair was cut, the clippings falling around him like the pieces of his life.

He supposed he could grow it out while at sea, maybe wear a topknot in time and not look like an escaped convict. Or he could keep it short, as it was a practical look, a hygienic one. Coming to prison might not have been the high point of his career, but he found himself unable to feel ashamed of the way he had ended up here.

Bells signaled the end of the exercise period; he pocketed the letter and rose to go. As he walked he exchanged nods with a few men he had befriended here, some of whom had been allowed to serve with him on the mission. The salvaged Quester-class tub was no _Firebrand, _and it did not fill him with confidence that this Prince Zuko had to scour military prisons to fill his ship, but at least the mission would have a competent leader in General Iroh.

The squatting form of the Navy prison filled his view as he approached it, his home until the transport took him to his posting. He held in a bitter chuckle as he joined the line of prisoners to get back inside. Here he was, back on Fire Nation soil, and already he counted the days until he could sail away. Maybe he had been at sea so long that anywhere with a deck underfoot was home enough.

The prison walls enclosed him as he walked through the gates under the eyes of the guards. Ji breathed the dead air, trying to remember the taste of salt winds on his tongue.

* * *

_To the Lady __Ty Sian__:_

_My darling eldest, it is a relief to have peace in the capital once again after the recent unpleasantness. The personnel and supplies we discussed previously will set sail tomorrow toward your estate. I am still unconvinced that a former prisoner is a suitable tutor for your children, though I suppose one cannot disregard the prestige of retaining a royal tutor and adviser, even a disgraced one._

_I feel it my duty to tell you that I harbor even greater doubts about the girl. I was surprised when the General assured me that you would employ her, and doubly so when you confirmed his words. I cannot imagine what use you would put her to, and hope you are aware she is lowborn and functionally illiterate. At least she seems capable of keeping the girls occupied and quiet; hopefully she will be of similar assistance to you. I trust you will keep a close eye on her behavior so she does not become a source of scandal for the family._

_We are all in good health and at peace here despite recent events. Some of your sisters, unfortunately, think little of the taxing times your father and I have spent. The third eldest has been most impertinent and disobedient these past weeks, and the fifth eldest, or perhaps it was the sixth, constantly begs to be allowed to go see you, a request I have no intention of granting so long as she retains her foolish and dangerous fascination with some manner of vulgar public performance called a "circle."_

_Little do they understand that it is I who miss you above all, my dependable and dutiful eldest. Great is my wish that you were still at your post at the palace, upholding the family's honorable name. Pray visit us with the children when your obligations allow it, it will be a cause of joy for all of us._

_Your loving mother,_

_Lady Si Feng_

* * *

" 'Mother, Dad, and Squirt,' " read Lijin, then frowned. "Can't she stop calling me that? I've grown two inches."

"You certainly have." Shiri put an arm around his shoulders and squeezed. "Go on."

" 'Well, here I am at the Colonies. I'm starting to get used to it, but everything still feels weird. In a lot of ways it's just like home, normal people living normal lives. Once in a while, though, I see stuff I know I wouldn't at home. Just the other day-' I can't read this part. She blacked out two whole lines with ink, see?" Lijin frowned and brought his face closer to the letter. "Why would she do that?"

His parents' eyes met above his head. "I'm sure she had her reasons." Tien Shou patted his back. "What else, buddy?"

" 'But I guess these people have it worse in the actual Earth Kingdom? I don't know. Anyway, I'm doing well and the work isn't that dangerous, mostly just boring. A lot of walking around and scowling. Sengmi and Little Jiang are okay, too, and they say hi. They want you to tell their parents that. Why don't they write their own letters, the lazy bums. To teach them a lesson, why don't you tell their folks Sengmi ran off with an earthbender and Jiang is a circus clown? Just a suggestion.' " Lijin turned to his father. "Should I, Dad?"

"Absolutely not." Tien clapped a hand over his eyes, one of which sported a fading bruise. "Not until it's true, anyway. Give it time."

"Honey!" Shiri whacked him on the arm.

" 'They do have circuses here, acrobats and animals, the works, and you can watch for free if you have guard duty in the tent. Because if there's one place the earthbenders are going to wreck you know it's going to be the circus, the fun-hating-' uh, what's this word? 'B...as...t...' "

"I don't think it's important." Shiri grimaced. "Why don't you move on."

"Okay. Oh, wow! They have all sorts of fireworks there! And fire magic! I'll write and tell her to send me firecrackers."

"I don't think explosives in the house are a good idea, young man. In fact I'm very sure it's against regulations for her send any." Tien started pulling the paper from Lijin's hands. "Listen, your mother and I will write back-"

"I'm almost done! 'So I'm okay. It's not perfect, but I think we're all going to be okay. I miss home and I miss you guys. Stay safe. Love you all, Yenzi.' "

Lijin let the letter go, and Tien placed it on the table. For a few moments no one spoke.

"Well. She's all right, and that's what matters." Shiri got up and busied herself around the kitchen, straightening dishes without need and wiping down a spotless counter.

"We're all going to be all right." Tien came up behind her to place a hand on her shoulder, and Shiri leaned against him.

Lijin got up and hovered around the table before he headed for the door to the shop. "I've got an idea for the project, Dad. I'll just mark it up on the diagram before I go to bed."

"I'll join you in a blink, son."

Shiri drew away from her husband as the door closed. "Are the two of you still going on about that thing? I told you, it's dangerous."

"What? It's good for a father and son to bind over a craft." Shiri did not look appeased. Tien went on: "You have to admit it's a brilliant idea, a mechanized bow with better range and power-"

"I don't want to hear about it." She shivered and looked away. "What you would even want such a thing for, I don't want to think. We've had so much trouble recently, and if they find out you've been building a weapon in secret..."

"We're not building anything, just dreaming. Not that we wouldn't appreciate it if you made us the parts we need for the prototype." Shiri fixed him with a look, and he gulped. "Or not."

She sighed and took his hand. "Just be careful. I don't want anything else happening to this family."

"I know." He pulled her into his arms. "I just want us to be prepared. We've always played by the rules and it wasn't enough."

He drew away, his hands on her shoulders. "Besides, if we tamp Lijin down he'll start sneaking around, not just with the bow but talking to people, maybe starting things. Better if I'm by his side."

"You're right, of course." She leaned into his chest. "You know, it's a terrible thing to say about such a nice young man, but I'm almost glad Prince Zuko is leaving the country for a while. He means well, but he's like spark on kindling. He can't help setting fires."

"That's why the terms of his mission require him to travel, I guess. If he settled someplace like the Colonies I really think people will go to him, make him a power." Tien stroked a hand through his wife's hair. "But I'm sure the Firelord means to bring him back when things have cooled down. What father could let his son wander forever?"

"Not all fathers are you, my light." She stood on tiptoe to kiss his stubbled chin. "Speaking of which, could you bring our boy back before he spends all night in the workroom?"

"Aye, ma'am." He nuzzled his cheek against her hair before he released her. "Go to bed. I'll be right up with you."

"I _am_ coming to get the both of you if you stay too long."

"I know." He hurried out the door.

Shiri stood by the window while his footsteps descended down the stairs. She watched the night sky and the stars, her gaze going further past the rooftops of the city to where sea murmured and tossed.

"Safe sailing, your Highness." She looked to the left and the right before she added in a quick whisper: "Dragon Prince Zuko."

With a motion of her hands she extinguished all the lights in the room except the candle on the table, whose flame wavered as she passed it and closed the bedroom door. Yet the lone point of illumination shone on, shaking and swaying but never going out.

* * *

_Dear Father,_

_It still feels strange to call you that, but so right at the same time. I hope you are well, too, __Elder. Master Lu Shi is writing this letter for me, though I will start writing my own once I know enough letters. In the meantime we can all enjoy his beautiful calligraphy instead of my clumsy scratchings. _(Your daughter-in-law flatters me, sir. I am only too happy to help. -Lu)

_I am doing very well and the baby is healthy too, growing every day. He seems to have taken a liking to mango-oranges. He or she, that is. You know I am hoping for a boy just like Khoujin, but one never knows about these things. Why, the family who has graciously taken me in had seven daughters in hopes of a son! Each one of them is delightful, though, and no mother would trade them for a hundred boys._

_I wish we could have more children soon, too, but circumstances do not permit it. You may have heard by now about Prince Zuko's mission. Khoujin will sail with him while I stay in Lady Ty Sian's household and raise our child_

Master Lu put his brush down with a sigh. "You know I don't agree with this, Sa Ye."

"You disagreed from the first, but you still helped me." Sa Ye, sitting by his side at the writing desk, folded her hands in her lap.

"I remember all too well. I wrote to Elder Lao asking him not to give Sanwai the news, and I made sure no one went to Tamalan to tell them. Not that they often send soldiers in person to such remote villages." He pressed his lips together, and scratched his neck with an absent gesture that was more habit than need.

"I thought it would help allay the immediate shock for Khoujin's father. But this is going too far, dear." He gestured at the incomplete letter on the desk. "It is time to break the news. How long can the deception last?"

"As long as it has to. Khoujin can't die yet: He needs to sail with Prince Zuko and serve him in exile, hold his son in his arms, even just once." She touched the swell of her belly. "And then he can fall honorably in service, and die to his father."

Lu put a hand on Sa Ye's shoulder. "Khoujin has acquitted himself honorably—no man was braver, or more dedicated. Let him go."

"Don't you see, if his father finds out now the grief could kill him." Sa Ye took his hand from her shoulder and gripped it in both of hers. "He's already lost two sons to the war, I can't let him know he's lost a third so soon. At least let Khoujin be a father first." She looked into Master Lu's eyes. "Isn't that the point of a story, to comfort folk and give them hope?"

"I am a Master of Laws and Decrees, Sa Ye." He avoided her gaze as he withdrew his hand. "I'm not in the business of telling stories. I've done enough of it for a lifetime."

"That's where you're wrong, sir. Everyone is in the business of telling stories. Will you help me tell mine, or should I do it myself?"

Master Lu looked between her and the half-filled sheet of paper, his hands hovering. Sa Ye watched him, waiting for his answer.

* * *

_Captain Ji,_

_Hi, how are you? I'm one of those kids who put you in jail. Agni, that sounds awful. I honestly don't know what to say, can you tell? Because 'Thank you for saving my life' is so weak, like someone's drowning and you throw them a strand of string._

_I'm sorry. Can we start again?_

_Sir, I am Private Tien Yenzi at the Thirteenth Colonial Defense Regiment stationed at Ding Mao. Because of you, sir, I am hale and endeavoring to serve my country with honor._

Yenzi let out a breath and put down her brush to wipe her sweating hands on her pants legs. This was even harder than she'd thought it would be. The letter to Ming had given her warm tingles in her stomach and a lump in her throat, and writing to her folks had lit a small hearth in her chest. This one, though? It was like trying to set ashes on fire.

_I want to apologize for what I said at our last meeting. It was disrespectful of me, and you didn't deserve that._

To be sure the Captain had called her a stubborn young fool for refusing his offer to tell High Command about her forge-bending. Still, she should have given a politer answer than _You're one to talk, sir! _He'd roared with laughter at that, yes, but that didn't make it right.

_I wanted to tell you I have no regrets about my decision and I thank you for respecting my wishes._

Something had changed in her when she bent her friends' fire on the deck of the _Firebrand, _when the catapult missile had exploded above her with a sound that still jolted her from sleep some nights. She knew from that moment she could never use that pulsing sense of life, the warmth of Mom's hands guiding her arms, for the cause of this war.

Captain Ji could have told Command about her anyway but hadn't, and she respected him for that. She might be stuck out here instead of some cushy factory or shipyard job where she could go see her family every other month, but as far as she was concerned this was the better deal.

_I realize you might have questions for me and I wish I could answer them, but I'm not sure I can._

She didn't know what she could have said if he'd asked her about the dragon thing. That some little flaker of a prince had ruined her shirt because she'd badmouthed his friend? When she'd thought she might die herself, though, it had been a strange sort of comfort to think maybe Prince Zuko would remember her and grieve for her, too.

Or, more likely, she'd been infected by Lijin's prattle about Dragon Kings and Princes. She promised herself to give the kid extra noogies in retaliation when she saw him again.

_I wish you the best of luck, Captain. I know there are no words to express my gratitude, and the only way I know is to serve as well as I know how. I will make sure you never have reason to regret your sacrifice on our behal_

"Muster in five." The door slammed open, and her brush went wide painting a broad line across the paper.

"Ten hells." She looked from the ruined page to the recruit at the door. "Have you ever heard of knocking?"

"Are all the girls out?" The boy surveyed the room with a cool gaze. She remembered his face; they said he was a local boy, an actual Colonial.

"Yes, now go away." He did seem the type, chewing and spitting his words like tobacco-beets, his eyes never still as though on the lookout for opportunity—but she shouldn't stereotype. They'd had the sensitivity training class and everything.

"Tien Yenzi, right, Jiang's friend? Shun Quan, down from Yu Dao." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Third Platoon's wanted in the front yard."

"What for?" Yenzi decided the letter was a lost cause and called a flick of flame to burn it. She chucked the curling paper in her wastebasket as she stood to follow Shun out.

"Some hotshot from the Capital, Lang or Ran something." He raised his voice over the noise of the hallway. "We're the lucky stokes who get to escort him to his estate. Word is, he never lets anyone get a look at his face and we got a pool going why. Want to take a bet?"

"I bet his face is perfectly normal. But just because I have money to burn, two Sparks he's got a huge burn on his face." She took the coins from her pocket and tossed them at the guy.

He caught them and grimaced. "You call that money to burn. Anyway, burn scar is the number one contender and you'll have to be more specific. Left, right, whole..."

"Ugh, who cares? Put me down for left." More recruits were streaming into the hallway, the flow pushing them toward the doors.

"Sure. Tien, a miserly two coppers for left-side facial burn. You know that's the most common duel scar, right? Probably 'cause most firebenders are right-handed, like most people."

They crowded out into the yard, the sun of a strange land in their eyes and an energy running through them that wanted a direction to burn in. Yenzi moved through the hum of life waiting to burst into motion, feeling the vibration in her veins.

* * *

_Next: It's as good a time __as any__ to forgive when things are drawing to an end._


	49. Final Interlude: Making Up

_Note: The following scene contains a frank, though non-graphic, discussion of sexual preference and history. If you don't wish to read this kind of material feel free to move on to Chapter 21, keeping in mind that Cheng and Shun had a reconciliation of sorts. _

* * *

Shadow of the Dragon King

**Final Interlude: Making Up**

* * *

_Motho ke motho ka batho._

A person is a person through other people.

- _Botho, _one of the five national principles of Botswana

* * *

Stepping out of the moonlight into clean-cut darkness under the walls, she looked up at the right angle of the roof where the two wings of a building met.

"Hey, you up there?"

She winced at the sound of her own voice, though it barely made a dent in the quiet. Her next words were little more than a breath.

"Li. Can I come up?"

A moment passed in silence. Her head drooped and she made to turn away, adjusting a satchel slung over her shoulder.

"How did you find me, Lieutenant?"

Her head snapped up, and her eyes tracked a corner of shadow skim along the edge of the roof. The baked tiles clicked softly above as though a weight were shifting over them, and a hand reached down from the rooftop juncture.

"It's what I do." She stepped onto a creaky crate set against the wall to take the proffered hand. With a boost she clambered up the wall and onto the roof, where she brought herself to a balanced crouch on the sloping surface. "And it's Jien when I'm off the clock."

The black-clad man let go of her and was still for a moment, the whites of his eyes darting in his soot-stained face as he watched and listened. She followed him in a crawl to an upper-floor annex that poked above the roof and cast its shadow over them both. He gestured at her to sit against the structure and took up position on her other side, all the while watching their surroundings.

"So it's 'Jien?' Last time we talked, though…" He looked away toward a caldera wall in the distance.

"I was pissed at you. Still am for the most part." She crossed her forearms on a raised knee and lowered her chin onto it. "But I heard what happened with his Highness. You didn't try to blow smoke in anyone's eyes, and you didn't make crap excuses. That counts for something."

"Not much. Not enough." His gaze went to the looming form of the royal residence ahead of them, separated from their location by two low buildings. "How did you know I came back to the palace?"

She shrugged the satchel off her shoulder and plopped it in his lap. "The disappearing food, for one. You're driving the kitchen girls wild, and not in a good way."

"I..." he fingered the string around the mouth of the bag, his hair hiding his face. "Didn't think I was taking that much. This should last me."

She looked around them. "So this is your hidey hole."

"One of them. On half-moon nights this spot is hidden from all guard posts for a quarter hour." He glanced at the sky. "About half gone, now."

"So much for palace security."

"You guys aren't bad, but you're human. Still, how did you know I'd be here?"

"I just cased a few places where you might stay hidden. Then I narrowed it down to the spots where you can see Prince Zuko's wing of the residence." She nodded toward it.

He scratched his head. "That easy."

"Honestly it's a bit creepy. Grown man with a fixation on this young boy, risking everything just to watch him?"

"Hey, kids do nothing for me." He raised his hands. "I was a boy myself the last time I had boys."

She gave him a sidelong glance. "And since then you had men."

"Naturally."

"Well." She thought for a moment. "I guess that's something we have in common."

"What, you used to be a boy?"

She slapped the back of his head, which he rubbed with a rueful look.

"So where do you go from here?" She leaned toward him. "The prince is leaving once they draw up the royal orders. Are you going to get away from this whole thing, live your life?"

He met her eyes. "If I do, will you come with me?"

She swept her eyes over the palace grounds, the caldera with its rows of gloaming roofs tranquil under the waning moon.

"My life is here," she said at last. "If I left it for you I'd resent it, and make you miserable."

"Hey." He leaned sideways to nudge her with a shoulder. "You couldn't make me miserable."

"I haven't tried." She nudged him back.

He slumped down where he sat. "Yeah, I don't know. He's not going to want me near him, and I'm already in too deep in as it is, it's a bad idea to keep on with- what's the joke?"

She had started snorting with laughter, and covered her mouth to muffle the sound.

"Subtle as a forest fire, aren't you." When she lowered her hand her eyes were bright with mirth. "Admit it, you're going to follow him. Not show yourself, maybe, but you're not leaving his side if you can help it."

"Damn females think they know me better than I do." Grumbling, he took a pouch from an inner pocket and handed it to her. "Anticipate that, why don't you."

Her hand dipped at the weight as the pouch settled with a _clink _of metal_._

"Can you use it to help out the dead and wounded men and the families, from the assassination?"

She looked from it to him. "Is this the money she paid you, for..."

He nodded once.

"Well." She curled her lips at the pouch as though it smelled, but put it away in her own shirt. "Freaky little bitch-pup should be paying a lot more for what she's done, but it's a start."

He looked up at the moon above the wall they sat huddled against. The shade it cast around them had shrunken, making them squeeze closer together to avoid its edges.

"Almost time?"

"Yeah." He put a halting arm around her shoulders. "Thanks for finding me, Jien."

"It's my job." She leaned her head against his shoulder and took a contented breath. "I always find the bad guy."

* * *

_Next: The final chapter. Exiles leave their native shores._


	50. Chapter 21: Exiles

**Shadow of the Dragon King**

**Chapter 21: Exiles**

* * *

And know this of a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.

-Socrates, _Apologia_

* * *

The procession was quiet as it made its way through the streets sunk in darkness before the first light of dawn. They might have been a funeral march with their plodding pace and silence, except they would stop without warning when the figure at the head stumbled or slowed.

"I'm all right." Zuko shrugged Iroh's hand off and stalked ahead of the group, his ponytail fluttering over his half-shaved head.

Cheng shrugged where she walked alongside Iroh. "He has the right idea, sir. Your orders are to set sail by sunrise, and that's less than half an hour off with how late we started."

"It was his fever, you see." Iroh spoke with a tone of apology.

"Yes, pride will light a fire under them. Give him time to cool off."

Iroh kept his eyes on Zuko, small in the distance. "The streets seem quiet even for this hour."

"Oh, we've cleared off Harbor Road just in case. That, and Lady Chamberlain Zhao's people are just about emptying the city for your niece's birthday celebration. Street vendors, unapproved performers, undesirables-"

Zuko's steps faltered and stopped up ahead, where the buildings stopped and the space opened out to the waterfront. Iroh was about to hurry to him when running feet approached from a side street. Cheng turned at the sound while the guards took defensive stances.

"Lieutenant!" A guard sergeant burst onto the road from the side street, two guardsmen behind him.

"Nakas? What-"

They heard the footsteps then, punctuated with the clink of armor and weapons. Zuko backed away toward the main group as men spilled out of the spaces between the buildings into his path, blocking the way to the piers.

Iroh was the first to go to him, and then the rest of the guards and soldiers in Zuko's retinue ran to form a knot around the two princes.

Cheng, bringing up the rear, drew her sword. "Declare yourselves."

The men pressed in, a silent menace.

"You intrude on Prince Zuko and his mission for the Firelord. Leave at once, or face his Majesty's wrath."

"How amusing." One of the men stepped forward, his face shadowed in the hood he wore. "Which one of us bears a permanent reminder of the Firelord's displeasure on his face?"

Zuko went into firebending stance at that voice. "Kang."

"There you are." The man lowered his hood, red ponytail flying over his shaved head like a pennant. "If you still call yourself a prince, accept your judgment as a craven traitor."

Zuko darted forward with a growl, flames bursting from his clenching fists, but Iroh stopped him with a hand to his chest. "Who sent you, young man? Is your employer aware of what might happen if Zuko were to come to harm here?"

"Perhaps some insolence from rabble who fancy themselves warriors, until the real warriors stamp them out."

"That is an impressive amount of confidence from a warrior who lost rather badly to the 'rabble' if the reports are true," said Iroh. Next to him Zuko snorted.

Flames rose from Kang's hands as he came forward. "Those peasants had a traitor prince at their head. After this morning that will no longer be a problem." His men surged into motion toward Zuko.

"Protect Prince Zuko." Iroh spread his arms, ready to blast fire in any direction. "Prepare to fight your way to the ship!"

"Flake it, there's too many of them." Cheng lowered her stance and pointed her sword forward, eyeing the men that filled the streets. "That Zhao bitch."

A crash sounded above them. A man flew through the second-story window of a house that abutted the road; he slumped onto the first-floor roof and slid down the incline, taking a swath of tiles in his wake. Man and tiles smashed to the pavement together, where he lay crumpled with blood on his back.

"Zhuang!" Kang's men ran to check on him, and turned him over to reveal glassy eyes staring at the sky. One of the men touched his neck for a pulse and pronounced him dead.

"This has gone on long enough." Another figure vaulted from the broken window and stood balanced on the bare section of roof where the body had slid down. The crescents of his blades gleamed wet in the semi-darkness.

"Shun?" Zuko's voice hitched.

"I assume the demon girl still wants a country to rule when all this is over, so she can't want the prince dead." Shun kicked a tile down to the street, where it broke apart with a sound like a small explosion. "I'm the only loose thread she has left. Well, here I am."

"Praise the First Fire, I was wondering how far I'd have to go." Kang gestured to the men blocking the way to the harbor, and they parted to open the path. "You are free to leave with your party, Prince Zuko, so long as he stays."

"Why should we believe you?" Cheng brought her sword to bear, scanning her opponents. "You're the one who got the ugly haircut swearing to kill his Highness."

Kang snorted. "Swear a warrior's oath to kill a child? If necessary, yes, but my oath was to keep that dangerous boy from the throne. After today, I'm looking forward to growing my hair out."

"You'll need a head to grow it on, of course." Shun took a step toward the edge of the roof.

"I'm not leaving him." Zuko grew pale as he looked on Kang's men, row upon row of them in the greyness.

"Prince Zuko." Iroh took his arm, but Zuko recoiled from him.

"I won't, Uncle. I can't leave him to die!"

Shun leaped off the roof and landed in a crouch. Men scattered from him, drawing weapons or going into firebending stance. He walked through without sparing them a glance, stepping over the corpse he had thrown. He sheathed his bloody blades when he reached Zuko's party.

Cheng lifted a hand at the palace guardsmen. "Let him through."

He came to stand before Zuko. "You must go now, my Prince. This ground shifts under our feet as we speak, and there's no saying what might happen if you don't leave while you can. Don't risk yourself or your men for a battle you can avoid."

"But they'll kill you."

"I'm not easy to kill." Shun placed his hands on Zuko's shoulders. "And what was I searching for all these years, if not a death worth dying?"

"No." Zuko squeezed his eyes shut.

"As long as I teach you, I am your teacher. I expect your obedience."

Zuko's eyes went wide, and he swallowed.

"I don't care what you do. Return to your father's favor and take your birthright." Shun brought his face close to Zuko's. "Don't let it be your sister."

A tremor ran through Zuko. "But I'd have to capture the Avatar. He - the war- you said you wanted it to-"

"No one's seen the Avatar in a hundred years. What's he ever done for me? But I know you." Shun's hands tightened on Zuko's shoulders until he winced. "The Kingdoms of Earth can't end this war. You have to take the Fire Throne and put an end to it, for your people and mine."

"I..."

"Will you do that for me? Do you swear?"

"I swear it." Zuko swayed as though he bore a terrible weight. "I swear, Sifu!"

"Yes!" Shun threw his head back in a laugh that sounded like a howl of pain, then leaned in to touch his forehead to Zuko's. "I knew it."

"We're still waiting." Kang tapped a foot.

"Go." Releasing Zuko, Shun backed away.

"Come, Prince Zuko." Iroh turned the younger prince around with a hand to his back, scanning the rooftops as he went.

Zuko looked over his shoulder. "I don't know your name."

The man clapped a fist over his heart and fell to one knee. "Lieutenant Kuo Min of the Hu Xin Guard Special Regiment Fourteen, called 'The Flowering Trees.' It has been my honor to serve the Fire Prince."

Zuko nodded and staggered on, through the gap Kang's men had opened for them and out to the waterfront beyond. His crew waited on the dock, ready to fight but unsure of the situation. The last of Zuko's men emerged into the open and their adversaries closed behind them, shutting off the street.

* * *

"Your Highnesses." An officer with a head of close-cropped grey hair strode up to them, saluting the princes as they came on board. An eyebrow twitched at the sight of Zuko's bandage. "I am Capt- Lieutenant Ji of the _Star-Seeker. _Your ship is ready to sail."

"Then right now would be a good time, Lieutenant." Iroh looked over his shoulder at the shadowed street they had left behind. "And 'General' will be fine."

"It is an honor to finally meet you, General Iroh." Ji turned to his first mate. "We're outward bound."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," said Iroh as men ran to start the ship. "I will require the services of your signalman to send a dispatch, to Harbor Defense." As he spoke his gaze went to Zuko.

"Of course, sir." Ji gave the summons to a runner, then followed Iroh's line of sight. Zuko stood by the railing at the ship's bow, staring landward across the waterfront. The boarding ramp pulled up next to him and clanged shut.

"The _Star-Seeker _will sail immediately, sir." Ji looked between the princes. "If I may ask, are we in danger? Should we prepare-"

Zuko swiveled to face him, his ponytail whipping across his face. "You will occupy yourself with sailing this ship, Lieutenant, instead of asking questions that don't concern you." He turned away as the ship rumbled to life. "I don't wish to be disturbed."

Ji stared at him a moment before he turned away with a scowl. "Aye, sir."

Iroh placed a hand on Zuko's shoulder, but Zuko shrugged him off. With a sigh Iroh stood with him while the ship pulled away from port, its shadow reaching out across the waterfront as the sun rose in the east.

* * *

"It's time to start, dirt-man." Kang came up to Shun as he rose to his feet.

"Actually, it's time for you to head back to whatever slag pit you crawled out of." Cheng imposed herself between them, blade in hand, while her men took positions on either side of her. "Unless you like the idea of being arrested for treason and nine counts of murder. I know I want to see it."

"How do you propose to arrest me, when my men outnumber yours five to one?"

"We're on the lap of the palace grounds, just about. We don't need to win, just hold you here until we have reinforcements."

"Jien," said Shun behind her. "They're not coming. You said it yourself, the Zhao people have taken control of security operations."

At the pier beyond the waterfront, the ship belched smoke from its stack and pushed away from the docks. The first ray of sunlight reached into the street, pulling long shadows in its wake.

"The princes have sailed." Shun came around to face Cheng. "This isn't your fight anymore. You will let them leave?" He looked to Kang, who shrugged.

"They can do as they like, just make it quick."

"Nakas." Cheng's eyes never left Shun. "Take command of the unit and report back to headquarters. Tell them where we are."

"We're not leaving you, ma'am." Heat shimmered around the big man's fists as he shifted his weight in readiness for battle.

"Don't be thick, Jien." Shun grabbed her shoulder. "They're not going without you. Get back to the palace now."

She brushed his hand off. "I told you, it's Lieutenant on the j-"

His other hand darted out to strike one side of her neck. Her knees gave as she tried to bring her sword up, and his fingertips rammed into her side below her ribs. He caught her as she fell, the sword clattering to the pavement from her slackened hand.

"Your Lieutenant is incapacitated. Get her out of here." Shun thrust her into Nakas's arms amid cries of alarm.

"What did you to her?" Nakas held up Cheng's flopping form, while around him the royal guards took battle stances.

"She'll be down for half an hour at most." Shun looked up into Nakas' face. "Keep her safe. Please."

"Agni, she'll be pissed." Nakas slung her onto his back as her hand twitched, and a whispered scream scratched from her throat. "Sorry, boss. Move out, boys!"

Shun turned to Kang as the royal guards' footsteps faded up the road to the palace.

"_Now_ it's time to start, ash-maker."

* * *

"Your attendants are waiting, Princess." The woman stood at the door of the apartment, the ornaments in her grey hair twinkling in time to the motion of her head. Her twin stood next to her like a reflection in a mirror. "You should begin preparing yourself for the midday feast in your honor."

Azula stood looking out at the sun rising over the rim of the caldera. Her gaze went down the slope of the volcano down to the sea, and fixed on flames rising from the harbor. A ship glinted as it sailed away, looking like a toy from this distance.

"Princess Azula?"

She did not turn away from the window. "Who do you think is crueler, Zuko or I?"

Li and Lo met each other's eyes and shrugged in an identical motion.

"You are not cruel at all, your Highness." Li tucked her hands in her sleeves and bowed.

Lo did the same. "Indeed. You are the kindest, gentlest lady a Nation could ask for."

"Save it for when I'm in a better mood. I know what they call me." Azula narrowed her eyes. "When I destroy people they hate and fear me, as they should."

The twins watched her with growing unease.

"But when they destroy themselves for Zuko they love him for it, and bless his name. Why? What is it about him?" Azula's fist pressed into the windowsill as she watched the flashes of light at the water's edge.

"Princess-"

"I'm the only one who sees it, how he lures all these people to their ruin." She swallowed. "That's what he did to Mo- to her. He'll do it to our Nation unless he's stopped."

Below the ship grew smaller, trailing a wisp of smoke toward the rising sun. Smoke curled from the waterfront as though in answer.

"I had to show him. Maybe he's finally been burned enough he'll never trust again." She closed her eyes and touched her forehead to the window pane. "Maybe I'm not too late."

* * *

_You play a cruel game, Princess, but I will gladly be a tile on your board. _He ducked a jet of blood and shouldered the dying man into the way of a sword. Heat started up behind him and he spun around slashing, felt the slice and heard the gurgle of a last breath.

_You do not see the weight of destiny upon him, nor can you imagine the path that awaits him._ The tension of a bowstring came like a finger on his neck_, _and he whirled away from the hiss of the arrow.

Heat rushed toward him and he leaped, cutting down a man as he landed. The fabric at his ankle had caught, though, and it stung.

He ran across slick red pavement, striking back attacks and tumbling away from the flames that licked at him. Shields blocked his path and he launched himself into the air over them, arrows whistling by his ears. A shock punched through him and became a dull throb when landing jostled the shaft in his back. A problem.

Up ahead he saw the reddish gleam of hair flying like a flag, no cattle darts this time because no one was holding back today. There was none here to stay his hand, no man to share this final path except the ones he took with him. She had offered, but—no. He could not pull her into this mire of blood, not even in thought.

Before he could run for the firehair three men came at once and cornered him against a wall. He thrust and swung at the two rushing in center and right, sending them crumpling. Spear from the left; no time to bring the dao around. He angled the arm up and the spear's point slammed in below the elbow, forcing him to throw out a leg to keep his balance.

His eyes met the spearman's over the length of the embedded spear, the panicked motion of hands trying to free the weapon tugging at sinew and bone. Even as his hand lost feeling and the left-hand dao clattered to the ground, he knew the spearman had made a mistake. A weapon was easier to replace than a life.

He locked his arm around the spearpoint and spun around, pulling the spear from the man's hands. He swept up the right-hand dao as he turned. The impact of armor and flesh thudded through the blade.

He kicked the dying man off and threw down the dao. There was a tearing when he pulled the spear out but no pain, not yet. He couldn't die yet. The ship was still there, shining in the dawn light over the sea, and he needed to fight on his feet for as long as Zuko might see him.

They were no longer coming near him now, and kept their distance while they shot fire and arrows. He caught up the right-hand dao and bounded away, cutting shafts from the air but collecting more of them as he went, one in his shoulder, another in his side. These might well be the things to kill him, something that felt like justice.

A flaming arrow struck like a brand and more of his clothes were catching, and his skin. He was on fire, he was fire-

_My fire isn't just flame and heat. _

If the Firelord's letter at Tamalan had been enough to quench the young prince's fire, maybe this burning would light a stronger blaze that would not die. He could only hope the fuel was adequate.

_It's everything I am._

He saw again the distinctive flash of hair, and there waited his enemy and brother in this world where killing was an act of love. The sea beyond was radiant, empty of ships.

Clothed in flames and agony, he burned with the knowledge that Prince Zuko would keep his promise._ He will return, and he will bring an end to my country of war. _He took one step and then another, his body heavy as though to weigh him down to this earth. _Kuo's treachery and Shun's deceptions will be as dust, and the world will be as though I had never lived._

His steps grew lighter, freed of the burden of his life. He spun the dao in his hand and ran to the embrace of the oblivion he craved, borne on the fire of conviction that would drive him to the end.

* * *

" 'You may have heard by now about Prince Zuko's mission. Khoujin will sail with him while I stay in Lady Ty Sian's household and raise our-' " tears ran down the old man's face, losing themselves in the channels of his wrinkles, " '-and raise our child.' The handkerchief, Sanwai, if you please. It must be the season, and my allergies."

"You should knock off anyway." Sanwai took a square of faded cloth from the desk and wiped Lao Tai's streaming face. "Here I am running to you with letters when you should be resting."

"No no, it is almost done. 'Khoujin says hello, and that he misses the way you would cuff his ears. He will miss you even more at sea.' " Lao's eyes filled with tears again, and he heaved a breath that rattled in his chest like dead leaves. " 'I will sail tomorrow and Khoujin within the week with Prince Zuko. It is not an easy parting, but it is our duty and more than that, it's what we want. He might not be in touch very often, but I will update you whenever I can. Take care of yourselves, and make sure the Elder takes his walk every day, Father. Give our regards to my father, and make sure he does not drink too much. Remember, you must write me the moment any of you is sick, or if anything happens in the village. Your loving daughter, Sa Ye.' "

The Elder put the letter down, the seeing eye and the white one far away.

"Good thing the boy is sailing with Prince Zuko." Sanwai strove to turn the pride in his voice into a growl. "Else I'd have gone to the Capital, the Colonies, or the pits of hell to give him one of them cuffs he's so fond of."

"No doubt you would." Lao Tai patted him on a knee. "You raised a good boy, Sanwai."

"Aye, and so did the Firelord." Sanwai's eyebrows bristled as he frowned. "Why would any man send away a son like that? I can't help but think, maybe the Prince is in this fix for his kindness to us."

"The Palace is a complicated place, like the worlds seen and unseen. Let us be thankful he is alive, and may yet return to us. I know he must be happy that our little village is safe."

"Not much use in fretting about it, I guess." Sanwai heaved a sigh. "If folk are right in saying he's a Dragon King... What does that mean, anyway? Dragon King?"

"That is a question even scholars struggle with." Lao Tai put Sa Ye's letter away in a box with the others, then wiped his eyes with the handkerchief. "We have had dragons and kings, but many doubt that such beings as dragon kings ever existed."

"So they're just a story?"

"One with power and truth, like all good stories. I believe they are leaders, nobly or common born, who give of themselves to the people much like the dragons did."

Sanwai thought a moment. "So Prince Zuko is one."

Lao Tai gave him a smile that was more gaps than teeth. "Time will tell."

"You're starting to talk in riddles. Means you need a nap." Lao Tai did not protest, and Sanwai spread out the futon and helped him onto it. "After that we can go on that walk my daughter-in-law wants for you."

"Might I have something to eat after my nap? I have an appetite today."

"Sure, I think we still have some of that rhino jerky laying around." Sanwai opened the door, then stopped. "There's something else as been bothering me."

"Yes?" Lao Tai's brown eye glimmered at him under the half-closed lid.

"Why did you call Prince Zuko by his cousin's name? Things slip your mind more than they used to, but you still keep the important facts straight."

"Ah well, as to that, I'm afraid my mind did wander." The old man's chuckle ended in a wheeze. "Do you remember the time we met Prince Iroh, when he came to our village tracking Master Ran the Red?"

"How could I forget." Sanwai shook his shaggy head.

"Back then I had a vision, a glory of fire around him, that told me he would be the father of the next Firelord, perhaps a Dragon King." Lao Tai's face was lost in reminiscence. "When I saw the same fire around Prince Zuko when he first came to us, my foolish old mind mistook him for that son I had foreseen."

"I guess it shows you're not right about everything."

"No doubt, friend."

"Let me see about that food. You rest up now."

Sanwai slid the door shut behind him and Lao Tai closed his eyes in the muted light, a deep contentment falling across his face where he lay wrapped in the layers of his ordered life.

* * *

"You should get some rest, Prince Zuko."

Zuko did not move from his position at the stern of the ship, watching the Fire Nation shore slip out of sight.

"Zuko." Iroh approached from behind him. "You have been standing here for an hour, and your fever may return."

"Are we on course for the Western Air Temple?"

"Yes." Iroh sighed. "Lieutenant Ji will see to it. The search will go quicker the sooner you recover your strength."

Zuko watched the empty sea where only dots and lines of distant land broke the flatness.

"The Avatar is a coward, Uncle."

Iroh started, but said nothing.

"He let his own people die out, and hid from the Fire Nation while the war raged. A leader suffers with his people." Zuko touched the bandage on his face. "The Avatar doesn't have what it takes to stop this war."

"Perhaps we should have this conversation elsewhere." Iroh looked around, though there was no one near. Zuko's surliness with the crew had seen to that.

"I would like to swear a warrior's oath." Zuko faced Iroh. "I want you to officiate. If my enemy can pledge his honor to ruin me, I can't do any less for the people who depend on me." He clenched his fist by his side. "Who sacrificed for me."

"Prince Zuko..."

"I swear I will return with the Avatar, Uncle. I will come home so triumphant, Father will raise me high and no one will dispute my right to rule." His voice crept down to a scrape in his throat. "And I swear to you, with my people speaking in one voice behind me, I will end this war and restore the Fire Nation's honor."

"You have my help, nephew, always." Iroh cast his eyes down, his hands in his sleeves and a small frown between his brows. "You can be certain of that."

"Thank you." With one last glance in the direction of home Zuko walked past Iroh to the control tower, his good eye next to the bandaged one looking to the future.

* * *

She took a ribbon and tied off the dark braids bundled at the back of the child's head, where the sea wind caught the strips of red fabric and streamed them through the air.

"There you go. All pretty!"

"Thank you, Sa Ye!" The little girl reached up to give her a hug. "I'm going to show Mama and Papa."

Master Lu, standing by the railing across the deck with an arm around his wife, turned at the patter of small feet on the metal. Sa Ye grinned to see him scoop the girl into his arms while Lady Nanhua fussed over how beautiful their daughter looked.

Stifling a yawn behind a hand, Sa Ye surveyed the deck. She made her way away from the crew going about their business and the staff chatting among themselves, to an empty section of railing at the stern. The wind tugged at wisps of her hair as she faced west.

"Safe travels, my Prince." She bowed with slow reverence, and straightening looked into the distance as though she could penetrate the miles with her sight.

After a moment she put a hand on the roundness of her pregnancy.

"That way lies the Fire Nation, little one, the land where your father and I were born, and where he died. It is your homeland." She fell silent while the call of sea birds pierced the roar of the sea.

"I will call you Jinha, a treasure among the mints, but your true name will be Jinlong, to follow the dragon." A smile glimmered in her eyes. "You see, in the old days the Dragon Kings ruled our Nation in justice and strength. One day soon a Dragon King will return to us, and with his people behind him he will make us a beautiful and peaceful country again."

She rubbed her belly in small circles. "Your father died for that dream. You will live for it, my beautiful Jinha, Dao Jinlong son of Dao Khoujin."

Sa Ye gazed over the open water as the waves carried her farther from everything she had known. She filled the spaces where the winds danced on the water with dreams that none could tether nor take from her, and she was free.

* * *

**THE END**

**Thank you for reading **_**Shadow of the Dragon King.**_

* * *

Special thanks to:

Amy Raine, my awesome beta-reader who made the story so much stronger and better, and vmuzic, who pitched in to catch the flaws I'd hidden too well from Amy;

amanda91, who commented on the original idea and encouraged me to pursue it, and was kind enough to promote it on both TV Tropes and in the notes of her own wonderful _Three Years at Sea;_

DracoMaleficium, FairLadyZ2005, grandiose6, Loopy777, sohawkeward, Stingmon, TrisakAminawn, wolf's lament, and many others whose thoughtful reviews gave me so much encouragement and inspiration;

and you, reader, for your patience in taking this journey with me. I hope I was able to provide some little entertainment while you stayed.

If you have questions or comments please tell me by signed review or PM and I will answer by PM, or in a short story in one of the following collections as appropriate:

_Stories from the Shadows, _stories that deal predominantly with original characters, or

_Legends of the Dragon King,_ a collection of short stories that involve canon characters and take place within the ATLA timeline.


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